Speaking of Elephants

Last week I brought news of the work of the Nonhuman Rights Project to California and found myself in numerous discussions about elephants.

I began in Palo Alto having brunch with Letitia Kornberg, who has lived in Kenya, knows about every elephant expert who has worked there, and has been assisting the NhRP with our upcoming habeas corpus litigation on behalf of elephants.

Then to Stanford Law School where, as a guest of the Stanford Law School Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, I lectured before 25 enthusiastic law students and Bay-Area activists about the NhRP’s work.

The following day I met with John Kay, front man for the band Steppenwolf, who is a great supporter of the NHRP. We talked more about elephants and his coming trip to Kenya to see its elephants.

Then on to Burbank for the main event, a three-day 30th-anniversary conference and celebration of the Performing Animal Welfare Society. I was delighted to attend as PAWS has generously agreed to take any elephants into its elephant sanctuary as the NhRP can free through a writ of habeas corpus in its upcoming litigation.

Not only was I treated to fascinating discussions about elephants both in the wild and in captivity, but I was able to reconnect with so many other of the speakers who help forward the NhRP‘s work in some way: Lori Marino the NhRP’s former science advisor, now working for her Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy; Joyce Poole, the internationally esteemed elephant expert who is working with the NhRP right now to develop the affidavits we need for our litigation; Chris Green, my former star Harvard Law School student, now ALDF’s director of legislative affairs; Carter Dillard, ALDF’s director of litigation; Marc Bekoff, former professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, now a writer and animal activist doing more things than any one person should be able to do; David Casselman, LA Animal protection attorney extraordinaire; as well as many others who came up to me and wanted to know more about the NhRP, or already did know about us and wanted to know how they might help.

And I could report back to the hard-working NhRP folks that the audience of several hundred accorded the NhRP a standing ovation at the end of my talk about what it is we do.