Peter Singer is considered to be the "most influential living philosopher in the world". His work in the field of animal ethics, especially his book Animal Liberation, published in 1975, provided the initial igniting spark for the modern animal rights movement. Several key figures in the animal rights movement stated that they were inspired by Animal Liberation to fight for animal rights. Singer is a co-founder of the Australian Federation of Animal Societies, now Animals Australia.  

Singer is the founder of The Life You Can Save, an organization based on his book of the same name.  It aims to spread Singer's ideas about why we should be doing much more to improve the lives of people living in extreme poverty, and how we can best do this. 

He has written, co-authored, edited or co-edited more than 50 books, including Practical Ethics, The Expanding Circle, Rethinking Life and Death, One World, The Ethics of What We Eat (with Jim Mason) and The Point of View of the Universe (with Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek). His writings have appeared in more than 25 languages.

Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and educated at the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford. After teaching in England, the United States, and Australia, he became Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University in 1999.  

Richard D. Ryder is a British psychologist and philosopher, who invented the concept of speciesism in Oxford in 1970 while co-initiating the modern animal rights movement. In 1971 Ryder contributed to the ground-breaking Animals Men and Morals (ed. Godlovitch and Harris) and, in the following year, he joined the Council of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA)- - the world's largest and oldest animal welfare organisation - leading the long campaign to rid that body of reactionary and pro-hunting elements, and first becoming its controversial and modernising Chairman in 1977. Ryder organized successful private campaigns for the introduction of Dog Wardens and to stop the hunting of otters in Britain. In 1975 Ryder published his first book Victims of Science - an attack on animal experimentation - which was hailed as “a morally and historically important book”. It had a considerable impact upon Parliament and led, eventually, to new European and British legislation to protect laboratory animals in 1986.

Ryder gained his MA (Experimental Psychology) and PhD at Cambridge University and was Mellon Professor at the Department of Philosophy at Tulane University. He is currently President of the Animal Interfaith Alliance (AIA) and President of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

Barbara Gardner is the founder of the cross-religious animal welfare initiative Animal Interfaith Alliance. She is also the author of The Compassionate Animal and editor of the animal welfare magazines The Ark and Animal Spirit. Barbara Gardner was a long-time trustee and is now treasurer of the RSPCA, the UK's oldest and largest animal welfare organization.  

Gardner holds a BA (Hons) from Kingston University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, having trained with and worked at Ernst & Young. She has previously worked as a Group Financial Controller and as an accountant & company secretary.  

Mark Rowlands is a British writer and professor of philosophy at the University of Miami. Rowlands first studied engineering at the University of Manchester. He then turned to philosophy, where he received his PhD from Oxford University. This was followed by various positions at the University Collegs Cork in Ireland, the University of London in England and the USA. Mark Rowlands developed a theory of animal rights based on the tradition of the theory of justice by John Rawls. Because there are socially privileged people, a utilitarian ethic needs to be corrected in favor of the socially marginalized - this is his interpretation of Rawls' basic idea behind the concept of the veil of ignorance. He criticizes Rawls for recognizing that people are better off economically as a privilege and naturalizing many other privileges, especially species affiliation, and thus removing the possibility of reflection. Using borderline arguments, this restriction to people cannot be justified morally either.

Jonathan Birch is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the LSE and Principal Investigator (PI) on the Foundations of Animal Sentience project. In addition to his interest in animal sentience, cognition and welfare, he also has a longstanding interest in the evolution of altruism and social behaviour.

He joined the LSE in 2014. Before moving to London, he was a Junior Research Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2013, with a dissertation entitled Kin Selection: A Philosophical Analysis.

He has published widely on various topics in the philosophy of the biological sciences, in journals such as Current Biology, The American Naturalist, Biological Reviews, Philosophy of Science, and The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science. His first book, The Philosophy of Social Evolution, was published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

In 2014, he was one of four UK philosophers honoured with a Philip Leverhulme Prize, which recognize “the achievement of outstanding researchers whose work has already attracted international recognition and whose future career is exceptionally promising”.

David Favre is law professor at Michigan State University College of Law. Over the past thirty years Professor Favre has written several articles and books dealing with animal issues including such topics as animal cruelty, wildlife law, the use of animals for scientific research, respectful use of animals and international control of animal trade. His books include the case book Animal Law: Welfare, Interest, and Rights (2nd ed.), Animal Law and Dog Behavior and International Trade in Endangered Species. He introduced the concept of “Living Property” which was developed in a number of law review articles over the past decade. He also has presented to international audiences on a wide assortment of topics. He created and is editor-in-chief of the largest animal legal web resource, www.animallaw.info. Now residing on a farm in lower Michigan, Professor Favre shares his space with sheep, chickens and the usual assortment of dogs and cats.

He was a founding officer of the Animal Legal Defense Fund for 22 years, serving as President of the Board for the last two years. Presently he is the a Vice Chair of the American Bar Asso./TIPS Committee on Animal Law and in 2012 was chair of the AALS Animal Law Committee.

Raffael Fasel is a Fellow in Law at the LSE Law Department. He completed his PhD in Law on the theory of human and animal rights at the University of Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College), with stints as a visiting researcher at Harvard Law School and the University of Oxford. His thesis was awarded the University of Cambridge Yorke Prize for an essay of ‘exceptional quality’. He obtained an LLM from Yale Law School on a Fulbright scholarship, an MA in Philosophy from University College London, and holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Law degree from the University of Fribourg. During his doctoral studies, he co-founded the Cambridge Centre for Animal Rights Law and currently serves as its Executive Director. He was previously a tutor in Jurisprudence at Hertford College, Oxford, and the Cambridge Law Faculty, and taught Roman Law at Churchill College, Cambridge.

Antoine F. Goetschel has been working as a lawyer specializing in animal welfare law in Zurich for 30 years. He is the founder of the Swiss Stiftung für das Tier im Recht ("Foundation for the Animal in Law") and is now President of the Global Animal Law (GAL) Association. Goetschel is author of several comments on the German and Swiss Animal Welfare Act. Antoine Goetschel is a regular guest on television programs and a speaker at conferences on the subject of animal law.