TIME: These Are Time’s 100 Most Influential Animals of 2016
Why did I create the TIME 100 Animals? Because humanity obviously needs a definitive list of the most influential animals in the world.
To do so, I formed a panel consisting of seven top animal experts. The Animals 100 board consisted of PETA president Ingrid Newkirk, Animal Planet and Discovery Channel president Rich Ross, environmentalist Philippe Cousteau, Farm Sanctuary president Gene Baur, BuzzFeed Animals editor Chelsea Marshall, my friend Phil Johnston—who not only co-wrote Zootopia but also wrote the scene in The Brothers Grimsby in which the characters get stuck in an elephant’s vagina—and Moby, the vegan musician who lives a few houses away from me and was walking by my driveway while I was working on this.