David E. Wilkins is co-author of Uneven Ground: American Indian Sovereignty and Federal Law (University of Oklahoma Press, 2001) and associate professor of American Indian studies, political science and law at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

James Hitchcock is a professor emeritus of history at St. Louis University. He wrote the book The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life, Vol. 2: From “Higher Law” to “Sectarian Scruples.”

Roberta Kalechofsky is the founder of Jews for Animal Rights and Micah Publications of Marblehead, Mass. She participated in a panel on reaching out to religious groups at the Animal Rights 2003 conference. She requests that reporters contact her by email first and that they identify themselves fully in the subject line.

Regis John Armstrong is a professor of historical theology and spirituality at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. A Capuchin Friar Minor, he is an expert on St. Francis of Assisi.

Kerry Walters is a philosophy professor at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. With Lisa Portmess, she co-authored two books, one about the history of religious vegetarianism and the other on the history of ethical vegetarianism.

Lisa Portmess is a philosophy professor at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pa. With Kerry Walters, she co-authored two books, one about the history of religious vegetarianism and the other on the history of ethical vegetarianism.

Kimberley Christine Patton is a professor of the comparative and historical study of religion at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., where she has taught a course in animals and religion. She is co-editor of A Communion of Subjects: Animals in Religion, Science & Ethics (2006).

Bernard Unti is senior policy adviser and special assistant to the president of the Humane Society of the United States. He holds a doctorate in U.S. history and is the author of Protecting All Animals: A Fifty-Year History of the Humane Society of the United States.

Andrew Rowan is executive vice president for operations at the Humane Society of the United States and CEO of the Humane Society International. He has a doctorate in biochemistry, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is former director of the Tufts University Center for Animals and Public Policy.