Her Majesty, the Queen of England, bestowed an honorary certificate to Colonel Jose Mauricio Weisshaupt Perez, the Commander of the São Paulo Police Academy in recognition of his achievement in reducing the level of violence in the city of Sao Paulo.
Colonel Perez receiving certificate from Queen Elizabeth accompanied by Monty Roberts
Following the principles of Monty Roberts in working with horses, Colonel Perez eliminated all forms of violence in the training of students, thereby contributing to a more humanitarian, capable and transformative police force.
© 2015 by Eva Zielinski Millar
The act of Her Majesty had immediate and positive repercussions in Brazil with the media as it affirms the great strides made at curbing violence in the country's largest urban area.
Colonel Perez sought to adopt a new approach to policing after learning the Join-Up® principles espoused in Monty Roberts's book, The Man Who Listens to Horses. The book proved to be groundbreaking in that it compelled the Colonel to rethink his overall training regime and, in turn, integrate the core philosophies expressed through Join-Up in his training of cadets.
In short, Perez concluded that by eliminating all forms of violence in the training of the students, he would contribute to a more humanitarian, capable and transformative police force.
This story, while remarkable, is merely representative of an ever increasing body of work as Monty Roberts continues to be an agent of change throughout the world. This mission was very much influenced by Her Majesty as she spurred Monty on to bring this ever important message of nonviolence to the global community.
On June 16th at Windsor Castle, the Queen was pleased to acknowledge yet another advocate for the ever important Join-Up message. The private ceremony was attended by Her Majesty, Monty Roberts, Colonel Perez, Eduardo Moreira and Eduardoâs wife Juliana Baroni.
Monty Roberts first gained widespread fame with the release of his New York Times Best Selling book, The Man Who Listens To Horses; a chronicle of his life and development of his non-violent horse training methods called Join-Up®.
Monty grew up on a working horse farm as a firsthand witness to traditional, often violent methods of horse training and breaking the spirit with an abusive hand. Rejecting that, he went on to win nine world's championships in the show ring.
Today, Monty's goal is to share his message that "Violence is never the answer." Roberts has been encouraged by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II with the award of the Membership in The Royal Victorian Order, as well as becoming Patron of Join-Up International.
Other honors received were the ASPCA "Founders" award and the MSPCA George T. Angell Humanitarian Award. Monty is credited with launching the first of its kind Equus Online University; an interactive online lesson site that is the definitive learning tool for violence-free training.