Building grassroots support and working to pass the first nonhuman rights laws in the US

Overview

In late 2016, three years after we filed our first lawsuits, we expanded our mission and work beyond the courtroom to include grassroots advocacy and nonhuman animal rights legislation.

Running alongside our litigation, our grassroots advocacy campaigns are a way for you to use your voice to help secure freedom and sanctuary for nonhuman animals in the form of rallies, petitions, letters and calls to elected officials, social media days of action, and more. Learn about our grassroots advocacy campaigns here.

The first of its kind in the US, our legislation will take the form of municipal ordinances that recognize and protect the right to liberty of all members of a particular species within a particular jurisdiction—requiring their release to sanctuaries or, if no members of these species are imprisoned there, preventing future generations from being imprisoned and exploited. Having completed the research and planning phase of this work, we’re now building relationships and support at the local and state levels. In 2019, we announced during a celebration of the life’s work of NhRP founding board member Dr. Jane Goodall at Los Angeles City Hall that we’d launched our legislative outreach in California.

We’ve also begun to hear from and reach out to members of Congress about the possibility of pursuing federal legislation. We continue to work behind the scenes with elected officials across the US to learn more about their interest in nonhuman rights and, we hope, gain their support. Stay tuned for details, including how you can help!