Washington has just outlawed wildlife killing contests—the seventh state to do so in the past six years. The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 7-2 this morning to pass a rule ending these gruesome spectacles where participants kill large numbers of wild animals simply for the thrill and...
Early Monday morning, our Animal Rescue Team arrived at two properties in Milburn, Oklahoma, with officers from the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, who served search warrants as part of an alleged animal cruelty situation. Law enforcement requested our assistance with rescuing potentially hundreds of dogs from two dog breeding operations.
On Tuesday morning, our team arrived at a dog breeder’s property in North Carolina. Behind a chain link fence, dozens of Australian shepherds mixes paced back and forth, barking and peering out. We were on site at the request of the local sheriff’s office to assist in the alleged cruelty case. The...
The Farm Bill, a legislative package the U.S. Congress approves every five years or so to govern agricultural and food programs, has the potential to instill animal welfare and sustainability into food practices for years to come. Instead, the 2024 Farm Bill just approved in the House Agriculture Committee would undo so much progress made for animal welfare, threaten public health and create a nightmare for countless animals.
When they learned there was a way out of raising puppies for sale and slaughter, two business owners in Viet Nam seized the opportunity. Because they contacted our team in Viet Nam to help them transition their businesses to kinder livelihoods, they will no longer be complicit in the trade that kills 5 million dogs and 1 million cats each year for meat in Viet Nam.
At a pet store located next to a flea market in Burnside, Kentucky, on Wednesday morning, members of our rescue team encountered nightmarish conditions for dozens of animals. The details of the scene were heartbreaking to hear. The air inside the store was musty and difficult to breathe. A sulcata...
When residents reported hearing harrowing yelps and screams coming from a nearby farm on Jindo Island in South Korea, local authorities investigated. What they found were the typical heart-wrenching scenes of a dog meat farm. I am acquainted with sounds like these. When I have visited these dog meat...
In a promising move for animal welfare, South Korean Democratic Party Assembly Member Jeoung-ae Han has introduced a legislative bill—called a Special Act—that, if passed, would end South Korea’s dog meat industry. Han’s bill, which is cosponsored by 11 other legislators, would outlaw the breeding...
Today, Governor Jay Inslee signed the Humane Pet Sales Bill, making Washington state the fourth in the nation to prohibit the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet stores. Washington joins California, Maryland, Maine and over 380 localities across the country in taking a strong stand against cruel puppy...
The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the world to acknowledge the pressing need to change our relationship with animals. From the wildlife markets implicated in the origin of the novel coronavirus to the slaughterhouses that have become clusters for its spread, we now know only too well that our...
Petland is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons, this time in connection with a multistate outbreak of a superbug that has sickened 30 people in 13 states. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today that four people have been hospitalized after being infected with a...
The Department of Transportation today announced its plan to issue new regulations that would prohibit airlines from banning certain breeds of service dogs. This represents a much-needed move toward ending discriminatory policies by individual airlines that cause unnecessary and cruel hardships for...
A federal judge has dismissed a court challenge to Maryland’s landmark law prohibiting the sales of puppies and kittens in pet stores, giving animals and consumers a huge victory in the fight against puppy mills. The ruling today means the law, which went into effect in the state at the start of the...
The U.S. House has just approved a bill that would expand opportunities for veterans to get involved with training and adopting service dogs, leading to better lives for both the animals and the people helping them. The PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act, H.R. 4305, will create a pilot program at the U.S...
By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson The U.S. House has just voted overwhelmingly to crack down on some of the worst and most malicious acts of animal cruelty, including crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating and impaling live animals and sexually exploiting them. The watershed vote takes us one step...
Dr. Katherine Polak, the vice president of Companion Animals and Engagement for Humane Society International, recently returned from HSI’s dedicated veterinary training center in La Paz, Bolivia, the only such center in the country. In this guest blog, Dr. Polak gives us an inside look at how the...