New Jersey has made history by becoming the first state in the country to ban the use of numerous wild animal species, including elephants, tigers, lions, bears and primates, in circuses and traveling shows. Governor Phil Murphy today signed into law a measure that recognizes both the animal welfare...

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...

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...

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...

When Larissa Brown bought a border collie, CeCe, from the Petland in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, she was hoping her beloved new dog would be an emotional support animal. Little did she know about the stressful days that lay ahead. Larissa says Petland employees told her that while it was possible for...

When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico last year, many residents were faced with a choice they should never have to make: fly to safety while leaving their pets behind to face the storm alone, or stay home and risk their own -- and their pets’ -- lives. Current airline rules make traveling with...

It was just after dawn when the Gaston County Police Department served a search and seizure warrant on a residential property in North Carolina last week. In the yard, makeshift enclosures made of wire and wood confined scared and skittish dogs. Our Animal Rescue Team was on the scene to help the...

There are some 10,000 puppy mills active in the United States – a mammoth number, by any measure. Animals in these enterprises are condemned to a life of squalor and suffering with no relief in sight. At a typical puppy mill, dozens or even hundreds of animals are housed in stacked wire cages or...

Wolves across most of the continental United States must have Endangered Species Act protections restored, a federal judge ruled yesterday, effectively prohibiting trophy hunting of the species across most of the country. This tremendous victory is the result of a lawsuit filed by the Humane Society...

You’re used to reading here and elsewhere about larger cruelty deployments in which The HSUS is involved, and that’s an important role we play as an organization with highly trained responders and a full-fledged animal response team. A large-scale animal cruelty case can be costly, and it is...

I lost my mother this week. She was 92 years old, and she packed most of those years with a remarkable compassion for animals – a compassion she cultivated in my sisters and me as well as in countless other people she encountered. My mother taught me that it wasn’t enough to just love animals – she...

Compassionate coexistence. It’s such a simple and worthy goal, yet it’s one of the areas in which the human aspiration to do right by wildlife still falls well short of what animals deserve. That’s why building global capacity and commitment for humane and effective approaches to resolving human...

Each year, trained responders from the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International enter disaster zones to rescue and rehabilitate affected animals. Over the years, our teams have responded swiftly and effectively to situations ranging from hurricanes to earthquakes to...

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...

In January, our Humane Society International/India team learned about eight puppies who were stuck in tar in the town of Tirur in the south Indian state of Kerala. The puppies, as you can see in the video below, were completely covered in the sticky black stuff that was fast hardening up around...

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.

The road to a more humane and just society for animals is paved by many hands and hearts doing many different kinds of work: Sheltering and finding loving homes for dogs, cats and other companion animals in local communities; tending to sick and injured animals, from those who share our homes to...

Across Asia, more than 300 million dogs live on the streets. Many battle hunger and disease, and most do not live long enough to see even their first birthday. Governments often struggle to manage dog populations. In the most heartbreaking cases, authorities resort to killing dogs in culling...

In India right now, the latest Covid-19 surge is having an overwhelming impact on the country’s people and infrastructure. Our supporters from around the world have reached out to express their concern for our team at Humane Society International/India. Alokparna Sengupta, India managing director...

Note: This blog is part of a series highlighting how we fight—and win—for animals . This post focuses on how we’re ending the worst forms of institutionalized animal suffering by working with corporations. Our previous post in this series covered our efforts with governments and legislative bodies...