Just days after the release of our annual Horrible Hundred report, Missouri’s attorney general has sued to shut down one of the puppy mills named in it. The owners of Little Bit Ranch in Unionville, Missouri, failed to provide adequate veterinary care for their dogs and left them with only frozen...

Missouri has proposed a hunting season on its small and still-recovering population of black bears, who were once nearly wiped out because of overhunting and logging, which decimated their habitat. The Missouri Department of Conservation estimates that there are now approximately 540 to 840 bears in...

The mistreatment of animals is a matter of injustice, and so it’s only fitting that the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in to stop cruelty at Even Keel Exotics in Temperance, Michigan. The DOJ’s recent resolution of a complaint against the facility’s owner, animal dealer Zachery Keeler, resulted...

Imagine spending thousands of dollars for a puppy and seeing the delight in your children’s eyes as they cuddle their new family member, only to find yourself in a veterinary emergency room days later, with your puppy on an IV, struggling to live. Worse, imagine that beloved animal dying just over...

Earlier this year, I told you about lawsuits filed in Ohio against Petland that revealed heartbreaking stories of sick puppies. Now, two new lawsuits seek to hold Petland accountable for business practices that mislead customers and prop up the cruel puppy mill industry. Attorneys with our Animal...

The fight to wipe out puppy mills passed a critical milestone this month: more than 350 American localities now ban the sales of puppy mill dogs in pet stores. The latest ordinances were passed by Roselle, New Jersey; Algonquin, Illinois and Carver, Minnesota last week, taking the total number of...

New York has the dubious distinction of being home to more puppy-selling pet stores than any other state in the nation. This could be about to change as lawmakers there move on legislation that would prohibit all dog, cat and rabbit sales in pet stores. Bills have already been introduced in the...

When Winkie, a Boston terrier, landed at Dulles airport in Virginia last week, he had a life filled with hope to look forward to: something he’d never had before. Humane Society International rescuers found Winkie earlier this year on a South Korean dog meat farm. He was living in a small cage with...

Our team has just completed the first stage of Spayathon for Puerto Rico, an ambitious initiative to spay and neuter 20,000 cats and dogs at no cost to pet owners on the island, and it’s been an amazing success. For seven days, surgical teams, ground teams of trained volunteers and staff members...

Poverty and structural inequality create barriers to accessing healthy food, education, jobs, health care and housing. Pet resources are no different. Over 20 million pets experience poverty with their families in the U.S., and 70% of these pets have never seen a veterinarian. Our More Than a Pet campaign is leading the charge to raise awareness of this overlooked national crisis and to attract new corporate support to increase access to pet resources and veterinary services and help keep people and pets together. This year, with the help of our partners—Smalls, Tractive, Motel 6 and TQL—we’re introducing the More Than a Pet Community Hero Award to honor three individuals for their exceptional contributions to their communities.

The joy, unconditional love and health benefits of the human-animal bond are priceless, but the sad reality is that millions of pets in the U.S. are living in poverty with their families. Rising inflation and systemic poverty have left many families struggling to access essential care and supplies...

One of the most miraculous things about animals is their extraordinary ability to heal and love. It is something we witness time and again in our work, especially with the dogs we rescue from South Korean dog meat farms. Last month, I told you about the latest group of 170 survivors from the 17th...

Not long ago, our Humane Society International team in South Korea discovered yet another heartbreaking scene on a dog meat farm: Dozens and dozens of dogs were locked in feces-filled cages awaiting slaughter. Many were pregnant, days away from giving birth to puppies who would only know a life of...

The people have spoken: On September 29, Humane Society International/UK and coalition partners presented the UK government with a petition that included almost 300,000 signatures in support of a nationwide fur and foie gras import ban. The handover of the petition coincided with indications that...

Earlier this month we told you about Lucky, a dog saved moments before slaughter in Yulin, as the city began preparing for its infamous lychee and dog meat “festival” later in June. Since Lucky’s rescue, local activists have been vigilant in their determination to end this event for good. In the...

Since we started publishing our Horrible Hundred reports about puppy and kitten mills across the U.S. in 2013 almost 250 of these high-volume breeding facilities have finally closed.

In the years since its passage more than half a century ago, the Animal Welfare Act has become an extremely important and multi-faceted animal protection law. Building on its original premise as a measure to protect animals used in research, testing and education, the AWA’s protections have evolved...

I arrived at Project Chimps yesterday just as dinner was being served to its residents: 79 retired research chimpanzees who now call this verdant, 236-acre sanctuary nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia their home. The building we were in is a brand-new, state-of-the-art structure named...

The dreadful cruelty of fur production is on display in video footage we are releasing today, as part of a Humane Society International investigation of 13 fur farms in China. The graphic video shows a worker at a fur farm stabbing raccoon dogs with a double-pronged lance fitted with a high voltage...

President Biden recently signed the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers for Veterans Therapy Act (PAWS), which increases the number of service dogs available to support veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions. We’re elated at the thought that more veterans will have...