Throughout our existence, humans have shared their lives with animals. A recent Gallup poll found that six in ten Americans share their homes with at least one pet. Yet scientists are only now beginning to understand how the animal mind works—how different species of animals think and feel, and why they behave as they do. Thinking Animals, Inc. was founded on the belief that if people learn more about a subject they care about, they will take ownership of the issues that threaten it. And people do care about animals, especially if they understand them as being like us—thinking, feeling, and intelligent.

Our mission, therefore, is to educate the public—providing them with a scientific and ethical rationale for valuing the intrinsic worth of other species and the importance of their survival. We believe that the more people understand the cognitive and behavioral complexity of animals—their intelligence, as well as the depth and nature of our evolutionary debt to them—the more they will consider the humane treatment and conservation of animals to be a priority.

Never has the need for our work been more acute: On every continent, a growing number of species is under threat. Moreover, the current rate of extinction is the fastest in the Earth's 4.5 billion-year-history and the most widespread since the loss of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago. Biodiversity experts estimate that the population of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians has dropped by almost one-third during the last 15 years and that as many as one-fifth of all species alive today will become extinct in the next thirty years if the current trend continues.

The effects of this dramatic species loss go beyond the fact that many beloved creatures are disappearing: Scientists believe that it also poses a major threat to human existence, seriously impairing the environment's ability to recover from natural disasters, reducing the potential for the discovery of new medicines, and severely degrading world economies.

Unlike previous mass extinctions, which are thought to have been brought about by natural phenomena such as asteroid strikes, volcanic eruptions, or sudden climate shifts, this one is being caused by humans. As the world's human population continues its unprecedented growth—more than doubling between 1960 and 2000—pollution, expanding cities, habitat destruction, and global warming are combining to pose enormous threats to thousands of animal species. In addition, many billions of individual animals suffer at the hands of humans, as factory farm animals are forced to live in deplorable conditions, and millions of companion animals are regularly abandoned, mistreated, or euthanized.

These are enormous problems—beyond the scope of most people's experience. And unfortunately, conservation psychologists are finding that the public is experiencing disaster fatigue: they are tired of hearing about problems they perceive as insurmountable, remote, and over which they feel no control. It is clear that a different approach to address these issues is necessary.

Founded in 2010, Thinking Animals, Inc. is a New York-based 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose primary goal is to provide a scientific basis for the intrinsic value of other species and their importance to our collective future. Governed by a board of directors and a scientific advisory board—including philanthropists, scholars, and nationally recognized experts in the field of animal behavior—Thinking Animals fosters an appreciation of animals' cognitive and behavioral capabilities; engages the public in educational experiences that broaden their understanding of, and delight in, the underlying relationships among humans, animals, and nature; and motivates people to become more actively involved in the development of future policies and activities related to animal well-being, conservation and the stewardship of biological diversity.