Dr. Larry Carbone is a veterinarian at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of What Animals Want: Expertise and Advocacy in Laboratory Animal Welfare Policy.

The Rev. Lewis V. Baldwin is a professor emeritus of religious studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. He edited the book The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.: The Boundaries of Law, Politics and Religion.  

Theodora Capaldo is president/executive director of the New England Anti-Vivisection Society, which spearheads Project R&R: Release and Restitution for Chimpanzees in U.S. Laboratories. Capaldo is a licensed psychologist, a trustee of the American Fund for Alternatives to Animal Research and past president of Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Michael S. Ariens is a professor of church and state for the school of law at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. He wrote the essay “Religion in the Courtroom” for the book Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices (ABC-Clio, 2002).

Jacquie Calnan is president of Americans for Medical Progress, a nonprofit group that views the use of animals in medical research as vital and opposes what it calls “animal rights extremism.”

Richard D. Stratton is the editor of Kindness to Animals and Caring for the Earth: Selections From the Sermons and Writings of Latter-day Saint Church Leaders.

Kim Sheridan is the author of the Animals and the Afterlife: True Stories of Our Best Friends’ Journey Beyond Death. She says that as more people have brought animals into their homes, they have increasingly come to see them as spiritual teachers and guides.

Niki Behrikis Shanahan is the author of several books on animals and Christian spirituality, including There Is Eternal Life for Animals. She lives in Tyngsborough, Mass.

Matthew Scully is the author of Dominion: The Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals and the Call to Mercy, which argues for decent treatment of animals from various points of view, including religious. He is a Los Angeles-based journalist and a  former speechwriter for Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.