Keith Akers is a Christian vegetarian and environmental activist who lives in Englewood, Colo. He operates the Compassionate Spirit website, which includes articles and commentary on animal welfare from a Christian perspective.

The Rev. Thomas Hughson is an associate professor of theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee. He is a member of the American Academy of Religion’s group on animals and religion and author of a paper titled “Wolves and Religion: Can Christianity Assimilate ‘Religious Experience’ of Animals?”

Nancy R. Howell is a professor of theology and philosophy of religion at the St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Mo. She wrote an article titled “Going to the Dogs: Candid Ethology and Theological Reflection” for the journal Zygon in 2006. She has also written several papers on the theological and philosophical implications of the interplay […]

Matthew Halteman is an assistant professor of philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., where he teaches a course titled “Peaceable Kingdom: Transforming Our Relationship With Animals,” about the Christian idea of stewardship with animals. He wrote a booklet for the Humane Society of the United States titled Compassionate Eating as Care of Creation, which examines […]

Rabbi Yossi Feintuch is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Shalom in Columbia, Mo. He is a vegetarian and often discusses a plant-based diet as a Jewish ideal.

Mike Jaynes is a lecturer in the humanities and English at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. He has written for About.com about animal rights, including a rebuttal of Christianity’s idea of dominion over the animals.

James Serpell is a professor of humane ethics and animal welfare at the University of Pennsylvania’s school of veterinary medicine. He directs the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society.

Andrew Isenberg is a history professor at Temple University in Philadelphia. He is an expert on the history of American environmentalism, especially in the American West. He contributed a chapter on the moral ecology of wildlife to the book Representing Animals.

Katherine C. Grier is professor of material culture studies in the University of Delaware’s Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. She has studied the relationships between humans and animals, and her books include Pets in America: A History (2006).