Culture & Animals Foundation

07/20/2026

Folks in NYC might be interested in seeing "A Paradise Lost," a full-length documentary on a landmark lawsuit where an endangered animal took humans to court to prevent their extinction. Through vivid hand-drawn animation and archival footage, Anuenue, a stuffed Palila which stood on the plaintiffs table during the court trial in 1979, tells their story of how they and human allies used the Endangered Species Act, arguing for the right of 2,500 Palila to exist. The film is showing at DCTV Firehouse from July 31 to August 6:0 https://www.dctvny.org/s/firehouse-film/a-paradise-lost-MCMXKMSQCYI5FVJCCAS77CZ2BT4E

07/15/2026

On June 8th, 2026 Visa Kurki, Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Helsinki, delivered the eighth annual 2026 Tom Regan Memorial Lecture. Enjoy the full recording here: https://youtu.be/_6j3fWx5JyQ

In this lecture, titled “𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗨𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝘂𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗨𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗮: 𝗔𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗮𝘄 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗺,” Visa claims that animal law scholarship is caught between apology and utopia, and that synthesizing work, combining diagnosis, theory of change, and strategy, can bridge the gap.

His talk was moderated by Marine Lercier, and was followed by responses and a great discussion by Eva Bernet Kempers, Angela Fernandez, Silvina Pezzetta, and Werner Scholtz.

06/23/2026

In November last year, South African 2025 grantee Daniel 'Mook Lion" Chapman revealed his “Restoring the Roam” project, which celebrates the reconnection of a wildlife corridor that has been fragmented for centuries in the Eastern Cape.

Once traversed by rhino, elephant, and lion, the landscape is severed by fencing, leaving these and many other species trapped and on the brink of extinction. The mural wraps a building that sits at the gateway to the corridor and serves as the hub for anti-poaching rangers and wildlife enthusiasts.

Chapman worked alongside Makhanda-based artists Sive Ntambana and Phila Phaliso, and hosted a gathering (below) with presentations by wildlife ecologist Dr. Wayne Vos, environmental lawyer Catherine Pruett (Law of the Wild), and the artists.

06/03/2026

𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟱, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲!

There's still time to apply for the 2026 Tom Regan Research Fellowship!

Established in 2019 in memory of CAF co-founder Tom Regan to promote scholarly research in animal rights, the fellowship supports the use of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collection Research Center's (SCRC) Animal Rights Archive—the largest scholarly archive of animal rights collections in the country.

In 2026, the Libraries and CAF will award one fellowship providing a $5,000 stipend to a qualified applicant for research completed in residence at the SCRC for a term of no less than four weeks to begin on or after August 25 of this year.

Learn more and apply here: go.ncsu.edu/tom-regan-2026

05/26/2026

For those who missed the recent Tom Regan Research Fellowship presentation titled, "Moral Character and Meat Eating" by visiting fellow Zachary Ferguson, or would like to watch it again, the recording is now available.

According to Ferguson:

“It is not hard to show that industrial animal farming is morally wrong. However, it is surprisingly difficult to show that the wrongness of farming practices means that it is wrong for consumers to eat meat. This is something that early advocates overlooked, and some philosophers have recently argued that the same principles that support animal advocacy also give us moral reasons to sometimes eat meat. In this talk, I argue against these views and show that we do have compelling moral reasons not to eat meat. To do so, I focus on elements of moral character, including the ways that we perceive animal products and how we feel towards them.”

Enjoy the full presentation in the link below.

NC State University Libraries The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The Special Collections Research Center invites you to a presentation of the 2025 Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellow, Zachary Ferguson. A Ph.D. candidate in ...

04/27/2026

𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗘𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 | 𝗧𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗟𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲

Join us online next 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟭, 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 𝗮𝘁 𝟭𝟮 𝗽.𝗺. 𝗘𝗧 for a presentation of the 2025 Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellow, Zach Ferguson.

A Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ferguson is currently researching his dissertation on the evolution of philosophical discussions surrounding vegetarianism and veganism, and his presentation is titled "Moral Character and Meat Eating."

His talk, which is coordinated by NC State University Libraries, is co-sponsored by CAF and the Animals and Society Section of the American Sociological Association.

RSVP here: https://lnkd.in/d7FAkxsW

The Special Collections Research Center invites you to an engaging virtual presentation to listen to a thought-provoking presentation by the 2025 Tom Regan Visiting Research Fellow, Zachary Ferguson. A Ph.D. candidate in Philosophy at UNC–Chapel Hill, Ferguson is currently researching his dissertation on the evolution of philosophical discussions surrounding vegetarianism and veganism. His presentation is titled “Moral Character and Meat Eating.”

According to Ferguson, “it is not hard to show that industrial animal farming is morally wrong. However, it is surprisingly difficult to show that the wrongness of farming practices means that it is wrong for consumers to eat meat. This is something that early advocates overlooked, and some philosophers have recently argued that the same principles that support animal advocacy also give us moral reasons to sometimes eat meat. In this talk, I argue against these views and show that we do have compelling moral reasons not to eat meat. To do so, I focus on elements of moral character, including the ways that we perceive animal products and how we feel towards them."

Where: Zoom (Virtual Event)When: Fri, May 1 12:00-1:00pm Eastern Time (US and Canada)

This event is free and open to the public.

Register at go.ncsu.edu/trvrf-presentation

04/23/2026

CAF awarded Olga Yarovaya a grant for "Warm Bodies: Cats and Survival in Wartime Ukraine," a collage series examining how cats became indispensable to Ukrainian survival since Russia's invasion. Through found Soviet-era print materials, Olha reframes animal-human dependence not as sentiment, but as a urgent question of shared vulnerability and rights.

Learn more about Olga's project here: https://cultureandanimals.org/grantee/olga-yarovaya/