Dr. Anja Heister is an experienced campaigner for animals, and a life-long animal rights activist. A co-founder and executive director of Footloose Montana, a nonprofit organization working toward an end of trapping on public land in Montana, Anja also created and then taught the organization’s popular trap-release program for several years—workshops offered to the public at no cost to learn about trapping regulations and how to free one’s companion animal from a trap or snare.

Originally from Germany, Anja has travelled internationally for several years, including a six-months long backpack trip through East Africa, where she had the opportunity to do some conservation work with elephants in Kenya. Anja has a master’s degree in biology (human genetics and anthropology) from the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe University in Frankfurt/Germany, and a PhD in interdisciplinary studies specializing in wildlife conservation, policy and animal ethics from the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana.

In 2022, Anja’s book, Beyond the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation: From Lethal to Compassionate Conservation, was published as part of the Palgrave Macmillan’s Animal Ethics Series. She is an advisor for the Weeping Elephant Project and is currently co-authoring a book on Veganism and Rewilding.