Erik was born in a rural area in the south of the Netherlands. Surrounded by farms and at home all kinds of different small pets, he knew from an early age that he wanted to become a veterinarian. He studied at the faculty of veterinary medicine in Utrecht, the Netherlands and graduated in 1985. During his studies he became interested in working in developing countries and therefore followed a special internship in tropical veterinary medicine. After graduating, he worked in various clinics in the Netherlands, as well as in France and the Caribbean. Mostly in mixed practices (Both farm and pet animals). In between, he also worked for several years in projects in South and South-East Asia. In 2006 he started a small pet practice in a small city in the center of the Netherlands. After 12 years he switched to the Dutch Food and Customer Product Safety Authority. As senior veterinary inspector, responsible for supervision of animal welfare and food hygiene and as a member of a specialist team to diagnose and control infectious and zoonotic animal diseases. Besides that, in his sparetime In his spare time he also recently participated in sterilization projects of stray animals in Brazil and India. Through StrayControl, he hopes to contribute to the prevention of animal suffering through birth control in stray animals