Jane consistently carried herself with grace and integrity. With unwavering empathy, she moved countless people around the world to consider other animals as individuals who matter. Her message blended an urgent call to action with reassuring hope that together, we can make a meaningful difference.

She understood animals on a personal level, and she also saw the bigger picture, advocating for both individuals and for holistic solutions to structural problems. I was blessed to meet Jane on several occasions, and I recall a dinner conversation around 20 years ago where she stressed the need to transform economic ecosystems where people survived through poaching and other harmful practices by creating non-extractive opportunities, such as plant-based agriculture.

Her revolutionary work in the 1960s exposed the prejudicial sense of human superiority commonly held by scientific experts who criticized Jane for “anthropomorphizing” and giving animals names instead of numbers. With humility and respect, she earned the trust of chimpanzees in Gombe. She observed their compassion, joy, and sorrow, which gave us a new understanding of our fellow primates’ complex emotional and cultural lives. She documented chimps making and using tools, abilities most scientists believed were unique to humans. In response, the respected anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey declared, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as human.”

Jane became a champion for chimpanzees and other animals, and a stalwart conservationist fighting to preserve critical natural habitats. She stood against extractive practices, including the destruction of ecosystems for animal agriculture. For decades and until the end of her life, she travelled and worked tirelessly to advocate for the natural world and the planet’s most exploited beings, including farm animals.

Jane stopped eating animals over 50 years ago, and she went vegan after learning about the tortured lives of dairy cows and their calves. She spoke with increasing urgency about the need to end factory farming for the sake of animals and our shared planet. 

“Farm animals are far more aware and intelligent than we ever imagined,” said Dr. Goodall. “Who will plead for them if we are silent? Thousands of people who say they love animals sit down once or twice a day to enjoy the flesh of creatures who have been treated with so little respect and kindness just to make more meat.”

As a United Nations Messenger of Peace and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Jane connected the dots. She understood that the lives of humans and other animals are intertwined, and she cared about both. She was concerned about poverty and economic injustice, which contribute to ecological destruction driven by exploitive industries and unsustainable, resource-intensive lifestyles, including the consumption of animal-based foods. 

Jane’s work and the cultural awareness she inspired have been present in Farm Sanctuary since our earliest days. We gave them names instead of numbers when we rescued animals from slaughter. We see each of these individuals as someone, not something, and we believe they all deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. Like Jane, we encourage people to have empathy for other animals. We also share her perspective on the need to create systemic change, which includes providing viable off-ramps for people currently stuck on the factory farm treadmill.

Jane modelled our foundational value of meeting people where they are on their own journeys, while also educating people about the vast harm that humans inflict on other species. Shortly before she died, Jane said she was “here to try to give people hope in dark times, because without hope we fall into apathy and do nothing.” This frame of mind is key to Farm Sanctuary’s work as we invite and encourage people to get involved in our cause, individually and collectively.

Jane’s legacy and spirit live on, and the best way we can honor her is to continue advocating for the kind of world she envisioned. Farm Sanctuary is committed to this, and as we seek to bring about hope and healing, we will follow her example and her wise and aspirational words: “Let’s try to replace violence and intolerance with understanding and compassion, and love.”