Since launching his bid for Colorado's competitive Eighth Congressional District, a region heavily reliant on ranching, Democratic congressional nominee Manny Rutinel has worked to distance himself from the years he spent as an animal rights activist.
As recently as 2024, however, Rutinel served as a fellow at the University of Denver's Animal Law Program, which is tied to projects that defend accused ecoterrorists and push fringe theories including the belief that all animals—including insects—are sentient.
The Animal Law Program seeks "to educate the next generation of animal law advocates" who will "protect the well-being of non-human animals," with programming that routinely connects animal rights to other issues, such as racial justice, environmentalism, and mass incarceration. Fellows like Rutinel, a lawyer and state representative, help advance the mission "by providing research support, increasing the Animal Law Program's public visibility, and expanding our impact throughout Colorado and across the nation."
The program is led by Justin Marceau, a Harvard-trained lawyer and author of the book Beyond Cages, in which he argues against incarceration for animal abusers because the criminal justice system is "inextricably linked to oppression" and tied to racism and classism. He has filed legal briefs asserting that animals should be legally recognized persons and told a New York appellate court in July 2020 that the Bronx Zoo "unjustly detained" Happy the elephant. Marceau called it a "uniquely depraved" act and wrote, "There is no principled reason that elephants, such as Happy, should be deprived of legal personhood in the context of habeas corpus."
Marceau also heads the University of Denver's Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, which is intertwined with the Animal Law Program and prides itself on "defending all animal advocates," including "the most radical liberators," like a woman accused of breaking into a fur farm and releasing almost 700 minks. The legal defense project aims "to drive up the cost of prosecuting animal activists and provide them the assurances that come with having a top-rated legal team on their side," according to its 2025 annual report.
Its clients include Cara Mitrano, whom prosecutors accused of breaking into the fur farm in October 2024 with her partner Christopher Legere, a transgender individual who goes by Celeste, and killing 23 minks in the process of releasing nearly 700. She caused an estimated $164,000 in damages. The engaged couple face decades in prison for charges such as ecoterrorism and animal cruelty.
The Animal Activist Legal Defense Project also represents Wayne Hsiung in his appeal of a felony conspiracy conviction and 90-day jail sentence for leading hundreds of activists on a raid removing chickens and ducks from farms in 2018 and 2019.
The Animal Law Program is part of the Institute for Animal Sentience and Protection, which describes animals as "individuals with intrinsic value and rights." Its website says "recognizing nonhuman animal sentience is a matter of ethical concern because it has become impossible to confront the intersectional dimensions of oppression without recognizing the immense harm being perpetrated on nonhuman animals around the world."
The institute argues that it's essential to assume "that all nonhuman animals are sentient," which means creatures like coral, earthworms, and maggots are included. In 2024, it hosted a "symposium on insect welfare, sentience, and the importance of considering animal welfare across species" featuring an "insect neuroethologist."
Rutinel's affiliation with the Animal Law Program comes amid attempts to downplay his years of animal rights activism and anti-meat crusading as he challenges Rep. Gabe Evans (R.) for Colorado's Eighth Congressional District, whose economy is heavily dependent on ranching, an industry that generated some $1.2 billion in 2022. It also undercuts his claim that Reddit posts he wrote in 2017 embracing efforts to give animals the same legal rights as humans and prohibit their slaughter "are not my views today."
The University of Denver paid Rutinel more than $15,000 for his role as a "Research and Teaching Fellow," according to a financial disclosure form he filed in 2025. The school's website listed him as a fellow until shortly after the Washington Free Beacon reached out last week.
A campaign spokesman said Rutinel "is not a current fellow" and "guest lectured at [the University of Denver] in 2024 but has not had any affiliation or compensation from [the university] since 2024." A spokeswoman for the Animal Law Program said Rutinel's fellowship "involved working to improve the Animal Law Program's connections and sensitivity to environmental issues."
Rutinel was part of an "amazing group of distinguished guests" who lectured a class taught by Marceau and Colorado first gentleman Marlon Reis during the 2023-24 school year focusing on "the difference between animal rights and animal welfare" and "the harmony (or dissonance) between the two fields." Details of Rutinel's lecture aren't available, but other speakers have included PETA vice president Jeff Kerr; officials from Hsiung's animal rights group, Direct Action Everywhere; and Chris Carraway, the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project lawyer representing Hsiung and Mitrano.
Rutinel also joined a panel following an April 2023 screening of The Smell of Money, a 2022 documentary that accuses North Carolina hog farms of environmental racism over their effects on nearby black communities. Pork and farm groups said the movie pushed "unfounded allegations" and called out the filmmakers, Shawn Bannon and Jamie Berger, for having worked for Mercy for Animals, an activist group that calls to "end global industrial animal agriculture." The University of Denver panel included Berger.
The following October, Rutinel delivered a "lunchtime talk" discussing "his work in the field of animal law." He joked that the meat and oil industry "should be a little scared" of "what I'm about to do" and called two 2024 Denver ballot measures that would have banned fur sales and slaughterhouses "really awesome," the Colorado Sun reported.
Marceau and Animal Law Program manager Jess Beaulieu said it "would be dramatically inaccurate to suggest or imply that Manny had anything to do with" the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project or the Institute for Animal Sentience and Protection.
"Those programs are entirely separate from the Animal Law Program; they do not share or commingle funds, and the Animal Law Program is not simply an umbrella organization," Marceau and Beaulieu wrote in a joint email. "For accounting, budgeting, liability, and practical reasons, there is not overlap between these programs."
The Institute for Animal Sentience and Protection, however, is a "joint initiative" between the University of Denver's Graduate School of Social Work and the Sturm College of Law and draws on "expertise gained from the Animal Law Program," according to its website. The program includes updates regarding the institute in its annual reports and cohosts events. Marceau and Beaulieu are two of the three staff members listed on its website.
The Animal Law Program regularly hosts the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project's staff and clients as guest lecturers and teams up on initiatives. Animal Law Program students are required to complete "live-client experiences or simulations," which would be covered by taking two courses that put them in the project—students did mock oral arguments for Hsiung's appeal, according to the project's 2025 annual report.
Rutinel's animal activism dates back to his youth. He became a vegan when he was 14 and said he recently started eating meat because "it's important for me to be able to enjoy the delicious products that Colorado ranchers make." More recently, Rutinel wrote an article in 2022 outlining a plan to pay meat producers to transition to plant-based farming and for a "moratorium on the expansion or creation" of large-scale livestock farms. In 2024, he joined a panel at the Animal Law Conference, an annual event organized by the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which says animals should be recognized as legal persons and filed a negligence lawsuit in 2018 on behalf of a horse as part of that effort.
Rutinel's activism doesn't stop at animal rights. The Democrat, whose father is part of a long-running socialist political dynasty in the Dominican Republic, wrote blog posts advocating for socialism and veganism, the Washington Free Beacon reported. Headlines included "What Would Jesus Do? Socialism" and "The 5 Stages of Becoming a Vegan."
