The Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy, Inc.

What Is Kimmela? The Kimmela Center is devoted to transforming our relationships with other animals from exploitation to respect by combining academic scholarship with animal advocacy.
The Kimmela Solution Kimmela offers a unique solution. We are working to become the go-to source of scientific and academic expertise on nonhuman animals, bringing objectivity and credibility to the pressing issues we’ve identified through four active domains.
What Is a Scholar Advocate? Kimmela is helping to create and support a new professional path for scholars in a variety of academic fields who want to apply their training and expertise to advocacy for nonhuman animals.
Kimmela in Action Kimmela is the missing bridge between the scientific community and animal protection groups. Our work is published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at professional conferences. We collaborate with other organizations to translate scientific findings into accessible and useful information for the general public.

The Blog

The Blood Harvest of Horseshoe Crabs is a Moral Fiasco

At a time when we are dealing with a viral pandemic that began with our exploitation of other animals and nature we continue to abuse other animals to solve the very problems we create. In this case it is the horseshoe crab whose blood is used in biomedical research and now being considered in the development of a Covid-19 vaccine despite the availability of a synthetic alternative.

Kimmela News

Kimmela Center Launches Scholar Advocacy Webinar Series

The Kimmela Center has launched a webinar series on scholar advocacy, an empowered professional path that combines scholarship in various fields with advocacy (for animals in this case).

The main reason for this series is that students, especially those in the natural sciences, are often led to believe that academic scientists should not engage in animal advocacy. They are often told that they can either be a scientist or they can be an advocate, but that they cannot (or should not) do both.

In this series of webinars, we challenge this outdated notion.

Kimmela Center in Action

The Someone Project: Kimmela and Farm Sanctuary are working together to compile, review and publish the scientific evidence for cognitive and emotional complexity in farm animals.

Campaigns against Dolphin and Whale Captivity: Dr. Marino provides ongoing expert research and testimony.

“I Am Not an Animal”: Kimmela adds the dimension of human psychology to its work on human-nonhuman animal relationships.

The Nonhuman Rights Project: The Kimmela Center provided the scientific expertise, data and guidance for court cases on behalf of four captive chimpanzees in New York State.

The Los Angeles Zoo Elephant Case: Dr. Marino has testified as an expert witness.