As a teenager, Esther Ouwehand believed that animals in our society should be treated with greater respect. Following her Policy, Communication and Organisation Studies at the Free University in Amsterdam, she became a marketing manager at a magazine publisher. She planned to work in a commercial environment for about ten years and then use her experience to work to create a better world for animals.

After about five years, she had had enough of the commercial world; this was right at the time that the Party for the Animals had been established. She had lost faith in the animal-friendliness of the ‘ordinary’ political parties, and was immediately enthusiastic about the idea of a party, which exclusively represented animal interests. She quit her job at the publishing house and chose for what at the time was a still rather uncertain future at the Party for the Animals. In the two years that followed, she set up the party organisation, coordinated the campaigns, developed the website, supported the newly-formed working groups, gave training sessions and so forth.

Esther Ouwehand is one of the authors of the Party for the Animals electoral programme. The party congress elected her to second place on the candidate list for the parliamentary elections of November 2006. Together with Marianne Thieme, she was elected to parliament. Her most important dossiers are animal experimentation, biotechnology, fisheries, entertainment with animals, and climate and nature.