The League of Humane Voters®  - Board of Advisors Dr. Alex Hershaft In 1981, Dr Alex Hershaft organized 'Action For Life,' a national conference credited with launching the U.S. animal rights movement. Later that year, he founded FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement), which has become a major force in the struggle for veganism and animal rights. He launched World Farm Animals Day in 1983, and the Great American Meatout in 1985. FARM's other campaigns include Vegan Earth Day, Gentle Thanksgiving, Letters From FARM, and the Sabina Fund, as well as the national annual animal rights conference.  In an earlier life, Dr. Hershaft spent 20 years in materials and environmental research and consulting. He holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Iowa State University. To learn more about FARM, visit: www.farmusa.org. Dr. Elliot Katz Dr. Elliot Katz is the founder and President of In Defense of Animals (IDA), and one of the most recognized figures in the animal rights movement. He founded IDA, 26 years ago. The mission of IDA is to fight for the rights, welfare, and habitats of animals, seeking to raise their status above that of mere property, commodities, or things. Just a few of IDA's campaigns have included fighting the chimpanzee bush meat trade in Africa, rescuing and caring for abused animals in rural Mississippi, providing ambulance service and veterinary care to street animals in India, and wild horse rescue in Nevada and Oregon. Those are just some of the ways IDA has successfully reached out to animals in need. To learn more about IDA, please visit: http://www.idausa.org/ Revd Professor Andrew Linzey Andrew Linzey is an Anglican priest, and theologian. He is a member of the Faculty of Theology in the University of Oxford. He is the director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. The Centre aims to encourage research into, and improve public debate on, the issues surrounding animal-related ethics. More than 100 academics in various fields currently act as advisers to the Centre.  Prof. Linzey has written more than 180 articles, and authored or edited twenty books on theology and ethics. He is the author of Why Animal Suffering Matters (Oxford University Press, 2009). In 2006, in recognition of his role in the creation of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, Linzey was named the Henry Bergh Professor of Animal Ethics at the Graduate Theological Foundation in the U.S., the first such professorship of its kind in the world. To learn more about Dr. Linzey, please visit: www.oxfordanimalethics.com/who-we-are/director/ Anthony Marr Anthony Marr holds a science degree from the University of British Columbia. He has worked as a field geophysicist and an environmental technologist. In 1995, he became a full time wildlife preservationist, which has brought him to India three times, earning him the title of the "Champion of the Bengal Tiger" in the Champions of the Wild TV series which aired in 20 countries. As an anti-hunting activist, he has conducted high profile campaigns in Canada for the bears and seals, and has been to Japan twice for the whales and dolphins. He is the founder of Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE) and has traveled five times to 40 states in a seminal campaign: Compassion for Animals Road Expedition (CARE). He is also the author of Omni-Science. To learn more, please visit: http://www.all-creatures.org/hope/ Dr. Shirley McGreal Dr. Shirley McGreal is Founder and Director of the International Primate Protection League (IPPL). The organization maintains a primate sanctuary in South Carolina and has been fighting the primate trade since 1973. IPPL helps many ape and monkey sanctuaries in Africa, Asia, and South America. Dr. McGreal has made herself the bane of poachers and endangered primate traffickers worldwide. IPPL's investigative work has been recognized by the United Nations Environment Program, the Bellerive Foundation, and the Dutch Police League-Interpol Wildlife Crime Group. In 2009, Dr. McGreal received the Order of the British Empire for her world-changing work. Prince Phillip commented on Dr. McGreal's bravery saying, "This is a very dangerous business and it takes real courage to collect evidence, track smugglers and bring illegal dealers to justice." To learn more, please visit: http://www.ippl.org/ Michael Mountain Michael Mountain is the former president and one of the founders of Best Friends Animal Society, which runs the nation's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned companion animals. As president of Best Friends, he helped launch the no-kill movement in the early 1990s at a time when more than 15 million homeless pets were being killed in shelters every year. Today that number has dropped to fewer than 3 million. Today, Michael is active with a number of organizations working to liberate marine mammals from captivity, to achieve legal personhood for certain nonhuman animals, and to apply science and scholarship to animal advocacy. Michael maintains a website at www.earthintransition.org, which is dedicated to transforming the way we humans relate to other animals, to nature, and to each other. Becky Robinson Becky Robinson is President and Co-founder of Alley Cat Allies, the nation's only advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and humane treatment of cats. Under Ms. Robinson's leadership, based on years of hands-on investigation and expertise, Alley Cat Allies established the first best-practice standards for Trap-Neuter-Return for feral cats in the United States. She established three spay and neuter clinics in the Washington, D.C. area that serve as models for feral cat veterinary care. Ms. Robinson and Alley Cat Allies are recognized worldwide for their pioneering work. To learn more, please visit: http://www.alleycat.org