Dear John,
For decades, the NhRP has advanced a simple but far-reaching idea: that nonhuman animals are entitled not just to our concern, but to actual, enforceable legal rights.
The nature of our work has never depended on a single case or a single moment. It requires sustained effort—returning to courts again and again, refining legal strategies, and building the foundation for change over time.
Every step forward we made in 2025 was powered by people like you who choose to support our work and understand that meaningful legal change takes time.
Here’s what your support made possible in 2025:
- We represented 21 nonhuman animal clients in our ongoing litigation—each of their cases bringing the issue of nonhuman animals’ rightlessness to the courtroom.
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5 states where courts were asked to confront animals’ legal status and consider the inherent harm in denying them fundamental legal rights.
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Evaluated and researched 17 new potential legal interventions aimed at developing procedural rules to treat nonhuman animals like subjects of the legal system entitled to fair process and protection.
- We reached 5.8 million people on social media—helping shift public understanding of these issues
- Reached nearly 370 million people through national and international media coverage that increasingly treats these legal questions with the seriousness they deserve.
This month we’re raising $45,000 to support the work ahead in 2026. Donate today to help fund our fight to secure fundamental legal rights for nonhuman animals.
In courtrooms across the country, judges are now engaging directly with questions that were once easy to dismiss. Each hearing, each opinion, each acknowledgment that nonhuman animals are more than mere “things” under law builds a foundation for meaningful, lasting legal change.
This change doesn’t happen on its own. It happens because supporters like you continue to show up and believe that a more just future is possible.
In 2026, our work is expanding.
We’ve already advanced a new legal strategy designed to address a persistent gap: the justice system’s failure to enforce existing protections for nonhuman animals. That strategy is now at the center of our case on behalf of the Ridglan beagles—a case that asks Wisconsin courts to simply deliver justice by protecting the beagles from unlawful animal cruelty.
At the same time, our ongoing cases in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, and Michigan continue pressing courts to confront the question of nonhuman animal liberty across multiple states.
This is how legal change happens, John. Together—step by step, and case by case.
This spring, we set an ambitious goal to raise $45,000 by May 31st to sustain and grow our work in 2026.
Reaching this goal will help us continue our active litigation and file new cases for more nonhuman animals who suffer greatly from human exploitation with little hope of relief—all because our legal system fails to recognize their fundamental rights.
If you believe the law should reflect what we already know—that nonhuman animals are self-aware, autonomous beings who are entitled to fundamental rights, and that it is morally and legally wrong to deprive them of their liberty and access to justice—please donate today to help us sustain our efforts and grow our impact this year.
