Elizabeth Hess is the author of two books on animals. The first, Lost and Found: Dogs, Cats and Everyday Heroes was published by Harcourt Brace (1998). The second, Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would be Human was published by Bantam Books (2008). This remains one of the only biographies of an animal. The book was the basis for “Project Nim,” a documentary film by James Mash (“Man on Wire”). Elizabeth is currently working on two book projects. The first is on the American Pit Bull Terrier, the rise of blood sports in the USA and the “racial construction” of bias agains the dogs. The second is a book about the first primate research laboratory in New York, LEMSIP (the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates), which was associated with New York University, and the race to produce a vaccine against AIDS using chimpanzees as human models. This book is co-authored with Dr. Douglas Cohn, a primate veterinarian who worked at LEMSIP during the AIDS vaccine study.
Elizabeth is the Vice Chair of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and a member of the Advisory Board of Out of the Pits, the first pit bull rescue in the country. She lives with two pit bulls saved from a dog fighting ring in Alabama.