2026 is a year to expand and refine 2025’s growth and innovation. We will investigate and launch expanded legal strategies that complement our habeas corpus work by pursuing additional rights and protections for nonhuman animals through diverse areas of law. We will also:
Looking Ahead
Looking Ahead to 2026
- Continue our grassroots advocacy campaigns to build support for judicial recognition of legal rights for nonhuman animals
- Continue using science, evidence, and data to guide every aspect of our work, from expert testimony in our cases to public opinion polling and message testing that shape our strategy and communications
- Urge the Michigan Supreme Court to hold that our seven chimpanzee clients are entitled to a trial court hearing on the lawfulness of their imprisonment and their right to liberty
- Urge the Hawaii Supreme Court to hold that our elephant clients, Mari and Vaigai, are entitled to a trial court hearing on the lawfulness of their imprisonment and their right to liberty
- Urge a Pennsylvania intermediate appellate court to hold that our elephant clients, Savanna, Tasha, Angeline, Victoria, and Zuri, are entitled to a trial court hearing on the lawfulness of their imprisonment and their right to liberty
- Advancing a new NhRP legal strategy, file a habeas corpus petition in Wisconsin on behalf of nearly 2,000 beagles asserting their right under state law to live free from cruelty and seeking their release to rescues and sanctuaries
- File new litigation seeking rights for nonhuman animals in California, New Mexico, and one additional U.S. state, advancing new legal strategies on behalf of new species and laying the groundwork for future cases in other jurisdictions
- File amicus briefs in cases that strategically advance the legal status of nonhuman animals and strengthen the foundation for nonhuman rights
- Continue providing thought leadership that inspires, strengthens, and grows the national and international nonhuman rights movement
