Jonathan Dickstein

CAF awarded Jonathan Dickstein a grant for his project, “Engaged Ahimsa and the Right to Rescue.”

In 2017, FBI agents raided Luvin Arms Animal Sanctuary in Colorado, seizing two piglets rescued from a Smithfield Foods factory farm. The sanctuary, founded by a Gujarati Jain couple, became the center of a landmark legal case that ended in acquittal in 2022, and raised profound questions at the intersection of religious ethics, animal advocacy, and civil disobedience. Through the lens of Jain philosophy, Jonathan’s research project asks: If remaining passive while animals suffer constitutes implicit consent to that suffering, does ahimsa (nonviolence) itself demand rescue?

CAF’s grant allows Jonathan to conduct archival research using court transcripts, legal filings, and media coverage, alongside video interviews with sanctuary staff, activists, and legal scholars. The result will be a peer-reviewed, open access academic article.

Jonathan Dickstein is the Tirthankara Shreyamsanatha Endowed Assistant Professor of Jain and Vegan Studies, Arihanta Institute, and a professor of religion at the Claremont School of Theology.