American Animal Advocacy Today: 50 Famous Movers and Shakers

Animal advocates are like a herd of cats: independent and contentious. They range from welfarists to rightists ,with every possible POV in between, but they all have one characteristic in common: they believe that the needs of our fellow animals matter. Animal advocates are thinking-outside-the-cage individuals who won't settle for society's traditional view of nonhuman animals. The following is my admittedly selective listing of some of the hundreds of important players in the fast-growing animal advocacy movement.

Richard Avanzino

Past president of the San Francisco SPCA (1976-1999), he led the effort to offer an adoption guarantee for healthy shelter cats and dogs. In 1998 he created Maddie's Pet Adoption Center, a home-like environment for cats and dogs awaiting adoptions, and later became the head of Maddie's Fund, whose purpose is to create a no-kill country for all healthy shelter cats and dogs and eventually save the sick and injured as well.

Bob Barker

The former game show host (The Price is Right) began his work in animal advocacy and became a vegetarian in 1979, influenced by his late wife Dorothy Jo. He ended every show with an admonition to the audience to spay and neuter their pets. Barker insisted that CBS not feature animals and fur coats as prizes on his program, to which they agreed, as well as asking those in charge of the Miss USA/Universe Pageants in 1987 to remove fur prizes (they refused, and he resigned as host). His DJ&T Foundation has contributed millions of dollars to animal rescue and sanctuary facilities.

Neal Barnard

Physician, founder and president of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) which advocates the use of alternatives to animals in biomedical research. He is also on the advisory board of EarthSave International, an environmental organization, and works with the PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Foundation.

Kim Bartlett and Merritt Clifton

Publisher and editor, respectively, of "Animal People", the most widely read newspaper dealing exclusively with animal protection issues since 1992. Kim was previously the editor of "Animals' Agenda", a now-defunct animal protection publication. She began as a volunteer dog rescuer, fundraiser and humane educator. Her husband Merritt Clifton founded "Animal People" with Kim. He writes over 200 articles for the publication a year, and is an ex-news reporter, columnist and foreign correspondent who decided to specialize in animal and environmental issues. Clifton is a second-generation vegetarian.

Gene and Lorri Bauston

Co-founder with former partner Lorri of Farm Sanctuary, a farm animal protection group with two sanctuaries (in New York and California). He is also on the board of EarthSave. Bauston visits farms, stockyards and slaughterhouses to document animal abuse, rescues animals, and wages campaigns against the cruelty of agribusiness. Lorri left Farm Sanctuary in 2005, after eighteen years, to form a nonprofit called Animal Acres, along with a farmed animal sanctuary and compassionate living center in Los Angeles.

Marc Bekoff

Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, he is the regional coordinator for Jane Goodall's Roots & Shoots program and a member of the Ethics Committee of the Jane Goodall Institute. He co-founded, along with Jane, Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 2000. Bekoff belongs to numerous animal protection and conservation organizations and is the author of many books on animal protection and ethology.

Carol Buckley

Co-founder and director of The Elephant Sanctuary, the country's largest natural habitat refuge for endangered African and Asian elephants on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee, founded in 1995. She provides permanent sanctuary for old, sick, cast-off elephants from circuses and zoos in a natural environment and tries to educate the public about the problems facing elephants today. Recently Buckley rescued nine elephants from a circus training facility cited by the USDA for abuse and neglect. The sanctuary has over 60,000 members.

T. Colin Campbell
Nutritionist, professor at Cornell and an ethical vegan who wrote "The China Project", which endeavored to prove that the traditional Chinese diet (which has little or no meat) is healthier than the standard American diet. He is also a board member of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and the owner of a nutrition company. He is on the advisory board of EarthSave.

Rod Coronado

An eco-anarchist and animal rights activist of Yaqui Indian background who formerly believed in violent direct action resistance to save the environment and animals. He recently had a change of heart after he became a father, and now says he will use peaceful methods to effect social change. Coronado was an editor of "Earth First! Journal", and a member of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, who was jailed for so-called ecoterrorist activities, including arson and conspiracy. He once crewed for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Terri Crisp

Founder and former director of Noah's Wish, a group devoted to rescuing animals trapped by disasters. She was recently forced to resign because of a financial controversy involving the usage of donated funds received for Hurricane Katrina. Terri has worked for decades to save animals left behind in two earthquakes, fifteen fires, seven hurricanes, three oil spills, three tornadoes, three tropical storms, and the 9/11 WTC attack, and has been involved in training thousands of disaster volunteers. Her book "Out of Harm's Way" documents her struggles in rescuing animals from disasters.

Karen Davis

Founder and director of United Poultry Concerns, based in Virginia, a rescue and advocacy group for factory-farmed chickens, turkeys and ducks. A former college English professor, she also founded the Animal Rights Coalition in 1989.

Doris Day

Former movie actress, vegetarian, and founder of the Doris Day Animal League, an animal advocacy organization. She co-founded Actors and Others for Animals in the 70s and appeared in newspaper ads criticizing the wearing of fur along with other actresses. A life-long rescuer of stray and injured animals, Doris Day originated Spay Day USA, an annual spay/neuter event. The Doris Day Animal League recently merged with The Humane Society of the United States, for which she has done some public service announcements.

Gail Eisnitz

Chief investigator of the Humane Farming Association, journalist, and author of the compelling book "Slaughterhouse", an exposé of the meat industry in the U.S. She also wrote a series in the Washington Post about the horrors of modern slaughterhouses that reverberated in Congress.

Priscilla Feral

Executive director of Friends of Animals, a national animal advocacy group based in Connecticut, and a long-time social justice activist. She was fired from her former job with the Department of Commerce in the 1970s because she had blown the whistle on her boss, who was illegally stockpiling whale spermaceti for use in cosmetics. A controversy with PETA over deteriorating conditions at Primarily Primates, a Texas sanctuary for non-native animals, ended this spring with Feral's group taking over its management.

Pamelyn Ferdin and Jerry Vlasak

Ferdin is a former child actress, co-director of the Animal Defense League in Los Angeles, and president of SHAC USA (Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, referring to a biomedical research corporation), which has had considerable legal problems recently, including the imprisonment of some of her staff, because of actions taken by the Department of Justice under the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Her husband Jerry Vlasak, a physician and co-director of Animal Defense League, is also involved with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and In Defense of Animals. He is a highly controversial figure because of his support of violence to attain the ends of animal rights, particularly in the area of vivisection.

Roger Fouts

Professor of psychology and co-director with his wife Deborah of the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute at Central Washington University. He's famous for his interactions with Washoe the chimp (as described in "Next of Kin", his memoirs) and a participant in Project Washoe, focusing on the use of American Sign Language (ASL) in chimps, since 1967. As an animal advocate, Fouts created The Friends of Washoe dedicated to chimpanzee welfare, both captive and wild, and is active in the sanctuary movement to provide for retired chimps used by Air Force and other biomedical research. He is one of the founding members of the Great Ape Project, promoting basic rights for great apes.

Michael W. Fox

Veterinarian, officer of the Humane Society of the United States, syndicated columnist ("Ask Your Animal Doctor") and prolific author of books on ethical eating and animal protection. Fox is the co-founder along with his wife of the India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN) and Hill View Farm Animal Refuge, its sanctuary.

Gary Francione

Law professor at Rutgers University since 1989. He teaches animal rights and the law and is the first academic to teach animal rights theory to American law students. Francione is an ethical vegan who opposes animal welfare law and the property status of animals and promotes an abolitionist theory of animal rights. He is the author of numerous books on animal rights and animal protection laws. Because of Francione, Rutgers was the first university to offer animal rights law as part of its regular curriculum.

Bruce Friedrich

Vice president of International Grassroots Campaigns for PETA. He is on the board of the Catholic Vegetarian Society the Christian Vegetarian Association and co-founded the Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians. Friedrich also created the vegetarian website GoVeg.com.

Jane Goodall

Ground-breaking primatologist who studied wild chimpanzees in Gombe, Tanzania under the auspices of Dr. Louis Leakey. Her Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), headquartered in Virginia, continues the research efforts in Gombe, participates in conservation efforts in Africa, and helps protect both wild and captive chimpanzees worldwide. Her Roots & Shoots education program involves thousands of groups in 96 countries educating themselves and others in environmental, political and animal issues. Dr. Goodall travels extensively speaking in the U.S. and abroad about chimpanzee protection, the environment, and the importance of peace and individual activism.

John Goodwin

The deputy manager of the HSUS Animal Cruelty Campaign and a nationally recognized expert on animal fighting issues involved with passage of state and federal legislation in this area. Hundreds of individuals involved in illegal animal fighting, including cockfighting, dog fighting and hog-dog fighting, have been arrested, thanks to Goodwin's efforts, including participants in the Michael Vick dogfighting enterprise.

Ray and Jean Swingle Greek

Ray Greek is a physician, his wife Jean is a veterinarian, and both are former vivisectors (animal researchers) who published an exposé of the biomedical research industry: "Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Cost of Animal Experimentation", which reveals how human health is harmed by animal experimentation. They founded the group Americans for Medical Advancement dedicated to spreading the word about vivisection.

Tammy Sneath Grimes

Founder and executive director of Dogs Deserve Better, a nonprofit focused on ending the cruel chaining and penning of dogs and incorporating them into the family unit. An artist and assistant web manager for "Animal People", Grimes was arrested in 2006 for rescuing a chained, sickly dog in Pennsylvania named Doogie. Her trial is pending.

Tippi Hedren

Former movie actress who runs the Roar Foundation and the Shambala preserve in California, which is a haven for some 70 endangered big cats from private individuals, circuses and zoos, such as African lions, tigers, leopards, servals, mountain lions and bocats. Among other animals, she has taken in Michael Jackson's Bengal tigers and Church of Satan head Anton LaVey's pet lion.

Steve Hindi

Former hunter who saw the light and founded Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) in 1993 in reaction to the cruel Hegins pigeon shoot in Pennsylvania, in which thousands of birds were slaughtered by both adults and children for prizes. Through SHARK, he has expanded his interest in animal protection issues to horse tripping, canned hunting, rodeos, bullfighting, and domestic animal cruelty cases. Hindi often travels across the country on his Tiger Truck, equipped with four outside video screens, to bring graphic images of animal abuse to the public and let them know what they can do to stop it.

Elliot M. Katz

Veterinarian, founder and president of In Defense of Animals (IDA) as well as vice president of the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM). His organization endeavors to help animals worldwide through investigation of abuses, rescue, rehabilitation, educating the public, consumer advocacy and litigation.

Shannon Keith

Animal rights attorney, animal advocate and documentary film producer. She recently produced the film "Behind the Mask: The Story of the People Who Risk Everything to Save Animals", a sympathetic look at the Animal Liberation Front. Keith has represented clients such as SHAC USA president Kevin Jonas against Huntingdon Life Sciences, a biomedical research corporation, as well as obtaining a large settlement from the City of Los Angeles for a case involving the beating to death of a dog by a city employee.

Elizabeth Kucinich

Wife of presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, she is an ethical vegan and a peace advocate, who, along with her husband, speaks out about animal issues and hosts vegan fundraising events. This year she gave the keynote address at the Animal Rights 2007 National Conference in Los Angeles.

Howard Lyman

A former Montana cattle rancher who sold his ranch in 1983 after he almost died from ill health, became a vegan, and wrote the book "Mad Cowboy: Plain Truth from the Cattle Rancher Who Won't Eat Meat". He participated in a trial along with Oprah Winfrey after charges were brought against them for "food disparagement" by a Texas cattleman's group for his revelations on her TV talk show about the ranching industry and her comments that she wouldn't eat another hamburger. Winfrey and Lyman won. He is a popular speaker and lobbyist for the Montana Farmers Union and the National Farmers Union and a director for the Center for Food Safety and Organic Consumers Union, among other groups.

Erik Marcus

Publisher of the vegan.com website and the author of "Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating" and "Meat Market: Animals, Ethics and Money". He views animal protection as divided into vegetarianism, animal rights and animal welfare, and wants to add a fourth movement which he calls the "dismantlement" of animal agriculture.

Jim Mason

An attorney, author, journalist, lecturer, and environmentalist with a special interest in the interface between human and nonhuman animals. One of his best books is "An Unnatural Order: Why We are Destroying the Planet and Each Other", which deals with the damage wrought by the erroneous belief in humans having God-given domination over nature. He has co-written two books with Peter Singer, "Animal Factories", about the horrors of factory farming, and "The Way We Eat", about ethical eating.

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

Former professor and psychoanalyst who became an animal advocate and the bestselling writer of numerous books about what makes animals tick, including "When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals".

Rue McClanahan

Actress and life-long animal-rights advocate and vegetarian. She was one of the first celebrities to support PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). McClanahan wrote to 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry that she wouldn't vote for him because of his pheasant hunting, and lobbied Bill Richardson about supporting a cockfighting ban.

Mary Tyler Moore

Actress who has been involved in animal protection for many years, with a particular distaste for the barbarous fur industry. She co-founded Broadway Barks, an animal adopt-a-thon in New York City, and along with actress Bernadette Peters she promotes spay/neuter and adopting shelter animals.

Michael Mountain

British-born president and co-founder of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah as well as the creator of the No More Homeless Pets campaign dedicated to ending the crisis of stray, neglected and abandoned pets. Mountain edits the upbeat Best Friends magazine, which focuses on good news about animals.

Ingrid Newkirk

Controversial president and co-founder of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), probably the best-known animal advocacy organization on the planet. A British citizen born and raised in India, Newkirk learned the importance of compassion through her mother, who volunteered with Mother Teresa. She worked in Maryland and the District of Columbia as an animal control officer before she met Alex Pacheco and became involved with PETA, and the rest is history.

Carole Noon

Primatologist who has worked with captive chimpanzees since 1984. Dr.Noon specializes in chimp resocialization, and is the founder and director of Save the Chimps, with a chimpanzee sanctuary in Florida and another temporary sanctuary (a former vivisection lab) in New Mexico.

Lauren Ornelas

Executive Director of Viva! USA, the American branch of a British-based vegan advocacy group based in California. A Texan who became involved in animal rights in high school, she is credited with convincing John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods, to stop selling factory-farmed animals at his stores, and for inspiring him to become a vegan.

Wayne Pacelle

The president of the Humane Society of the United States, he has also worked for The Fund for Animals, Animal Rights Alliance, and was formerly the editor of now defunct "The Animals Agenda" magazine. Pacelle is a vegan and a deft politician who has transformed the HSUS from an animal welfare to a more animal-rights oriented organization.

Alex Pacheco

Co-founder, along with Ingrid Newkirk, of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He left PETA in 1999 to head All American Animals and Humane America. He is the creator of 1-800-SAVE-A-PET.com and has written for the publication "Animal Times" for many years. In his 20s Pacheco helped close down a biomedical research lab on the grounds of cruelty to animals. He also led a lengthy effort to save a group of crippled lab monkeys called "The Silver Spring Monkeys".

Tom Regan

Professor of philosophy at North Carolina State University, animal rights advocate and author. His book "The Case for Animal Rights" is considered a classic in the field. Regan has coauthored books with philosopher and animal liberationist Peter Singer.

John Robbins

Former heir to the Baskin-Robbins ice cream empire, he left to become a vegetarian and environmental activist. Robbins has written a number of books on nutrition and factory farming issues, including "Diet for a New America". He founded EarthSave International.

Becky Robinson

Co-founder and president of Alley Cat Allies, which promotes the humane Trap-Neuter-Return instead of euthanasia for feral and stray cats. Robinson works with individuals and groups to find innovative solutions for the domestic animal overpopulation crisis.

Edwin Sayres

President of the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). He took over the San Francisco SPCA after Richard Avanzino left and worked to decrease the euthanasia rate there. Sayres has also been the director of PetsMart Charities, which gives money to local humane societies, works to reduce euthanasia, and places hundreds of thousands of shelter animals annually.

Matthew Scully

Former speechwriter for George W. Bush and other Republican politicians, he is a vegan and animal advocate who wrote "Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy", which discusses the true meaning of the word "dominion" as our responsibility to protect our fellow animals, not to exploit them.

Peter Singer

Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He grew up in Australia after his parents escaped from Germany during the Holocaust. His seminal book "Animal Liberation" is considered the bible of the animal protection movement. An outspoken and controversial vegetarian, Singer has lately and disappointingly softened his stand against meat eating, promoting the consumption of animal products labeled "compassionately raised".

Paul Watson

Founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and co-founder of Greenpeace, as well as a board member of the Sierra Club. Watson is an environmentalist who has endeavored to protect marine animals against exploitation by humans.

Jim Willis

Animal rescuer, writer, and animal advocate for many years who founded the Tiergarten Sanctuary Trust in Germany. He is now coordinator for Cape Fear Rescue Rangers in North Carolina. Willis is best known for his book "Pieces of My Heart: Writings Inspired by Animals and Nature", and his essay "How Could You?", a heartbreaking story written from the point of view of a shelter dog. He has had recent legal problems, mostly related to rescuing dogs from what he determined to be bad situations.

Steven Wise

An instructor in animal rights law at Harvard Law School and other universities, as well as a legal scholar with a specialty in animal protection issues, primatology and animal intelligence. Wise has written a number of books for the layman about animal rights, including "Drawing the Line" and "Rattling the Cage", which discuss the intelligence of various animals and his argument that legal rights should be given to chimpanzees and bonobos.