The images are sickening and reminiscent of the photos trophy hunters tend to post with their safari kills. Workers for the Icelandic whaling industry are seen posing with and sitting on top of what appears to be the corpse of a blue whale -- the largest animal on earth and an endangered species...

Despite ecological devastation, habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, poaching and all the other threats that undermine the ability of wild animals to survive in their natural habitats, Europe’s largest hunting fair opened this week in Dortmund, Germany . Considering the imminent danger these...

Today, we released the grisly findings of three undercover investigations into wildlife killing contests in Virginia, including the largest contest held east of the Mississippi River. The heartbreaking callousness and carnage our investigators saw at the weigh-ins of the three contests, which took...

Facebook’s recent takedown of dozens of troll accounts linked to a single marketing firm sheds new light on the intensely deceptive tactics used by trophy hunting groups to sell the public and politicians a bill of goods. Last week, the social media network announced it was permanently banning Rally...

Today, in a crucial victory for animals, President Trump signed into law the Farm Bill minus the anti-animal King amendment but with three pro-animal measures. This is an outcome the Humane Society Legislative Fund had long worked for, along with our Humane Society of the United States legal and...

Throughout 2018, Humane Society International has driven transformational changes for animals around the globe. Vietnam adopted animal welfare language for the first time in its history; Unilever supported a global ban on animal testing for cosmetics; the Indonesian government supported a ban on the...

On Dec. 31, Florida's greyhound racetracks closed for good as a result of a ballot measure we helped pass with our partner groups in 2018. That win brought down what was once the stronghold of this "sport" and effectively sounded the death knell for greyhound racing in the United States. The work...

It has been six years since the death of Cecil, a male lion who was a popular individual for wildlife viewing tourists visiting Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. The heartbreaking details of the hunt that killed Cecil made international headlines: Cecil was lured out of the protected area with...

We recently celebrated progress toward protecting wolves, bears, coyotes, cougars, foxes, bobcats and other native carnivores living on the vast U.S. National Wildlife Refuge System, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service advanced a rule that would protect them from lethal and flawed “predator control” programs. Until the rule is finalized, however, their lives still hang in the balance, waiting for a decision that could mean the difference between life and death. Such is the power that public policy has over the lives of animals. And it’s just one decision that we’re urging the Biden administration to make before election season stalls critical activity to finalize protections for so many species.

Note: This blog is part of a series highlighting how we fight—and win—for animals. For this post, I join with Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, to tell the story about how we tackle institutionalized animal suffering by changing laws and government regulations. “Why...

Every year that passes sees hundreds of thousands of wild animals in the U.S. and around the world killed by trophy hunters, whose main motivation is to display whole animals or their body parts for bragging rights. Given all the threats facing wild animals, including habitat loss, environmental...

Given the highly polarized atmosphere in Washington, DC, these days, our crucial bipartisan wins for animals in 2019 give great cause for celebration. Thanks to the support and engagement of countless Americans, we hit our marks this year. We succeeded in getting one of our highest priorities, a...

Right now, as they do every year, our opponents are mobilizing in state legislatures around the country to halt the march forward for animal protection. Even as we have worked with countless stakeholders to win passage of hundreds of bills and local ordinances year after year, our opponents have dug...

In June, the federal government finalized a rule to appease trophy hunters by allowing some of the cruelest of killing methods on 20 million acres of Alaska’s national preserves. Today, the Humane Society of the United States, along with a coalition of conservation and animal protection...

While the human world is marked by borders between territories and nations, the animal world in its natural state knows no such boundaries. Migratory animals—who travel thousands of miles on land, through sea, and in the air—not only play a crucial role in ecosystems, but are living, breathing testaments to the interconnectedness of all our lives on earth. A new United Nations report, the first-ever on the state of the world’s migratory species, reveals that nearly half of these species (44%) are suffering population declines, and some are under severe pressure, including many species of migratory birds, whales, sharks, elephants, jaguars and other big cats. No wild species are safe from the threat posed by the global biodiversity crisis.

Our Animal Protection Litigation team plays a critical role at the Humane Society of the United States, filing lawsuits and legal petitions to support our major campaigns, drafting language for state and federal animal protection bills and ballot measures, and defending animal protection laws once...

The year 2019 was one of extraordinary gains for animals trapped in the cruel business of fur, for companion animals who are the victims of malicious cruelty, for wild animals at risk of extinction because of trophy hunting and the wildlife products trade, and for farm animals forced to spend their...

Trophy hunting is a cruel and dangerous pastime that is pushing some of the world’s most iconic animals closer to extinction, and the Humane Society family of organizations has put our might behind stopping it. In the past four years we have encountered tremendous challenges under the Trump...

Wild animals face a chilling multitude of threats. At a time when so many are vulnerable to the unprecedented impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and ongoing human encroachment on shrinking habitats, imperiled animals continue to be killed for nothing more than a trophy, a prize, a pelt or a trinket. Others suffer at the hands of traffickers and breeders who want to lock them in cages for entertainment.

Today, Canada took a historic step forward in defense of imperiled wild animals, announcing landmark regulations that ban trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, as well as imports of hunting trophies containing these parts.