Earlier this week, the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review a challenge to the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act, which was signed into law in 2020 in an effort to better ensure the safety of horses used in racing in the U.S. Prior to the passage of the Act, there was a patchwork of laws throughout the country that were confusing and didn’t help to properly protect horses. Because of this, we fought for years for the passage and proper implementation of the Act to ensure meaningful oversight over the welfare of these horses, because as long as horses are raced, they deserve to be protected from harm.

Today I’m turning the blog over to my colleague Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International/Canada. For nearly two decades, Rebecca has been on the literal front lines of the fight to save animals, traveling to the ice floes of the Northwest Atlantic to document Canada’s...

Our disaster relief team does not shy away from challenging conditions when it comes to helping animals and their families. In 2020, they responded to animals’ needs following the devastation wrought by Australia's wildfires, and last year they went to save animals after the earthquakes in Türkiye. The team’s experience, training and preparation make such a difference. Now our disaster relief team has deployed to Chile to help save hundreds of animals in the wake of devastating and fatal fires. Thousands of people and potentially hundreds of companion animals have been affected, suffering with burns, smoke inhalation and other injuries, with many dogs and cats displaced with or without their families. In this guest blog, Felipe Marquez, our program manager for Latin America region disaster response, shares a glimpse of the team’s work in the field.

Wyoming’s crusade to declare open season on grizzly bears hit an unprecedented low this week when Gov. Mark Gordon signed into law a statute that gives state officials the authority to open a trophy hunting season on grizzly bears and relocate bears to other states without federal authorization. The...

A federal court has ruled that a jury was right in holding Smithfield responsible for creating a nuisance for a community in the vicinity of a pig growing facility in North Carolina. Neighbors of the Smithfield-affiliated facility, which held 15,000 pigs, had alleged that the company essentially...

On June 2, Churchill Downs, the home of the Kentucky Derby, suspended horse racing upon the recommendation of the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority after 12 horses died in a span of a few weeks at the track. Just 10 days prior the Authority finally gained the power to fully enforce the...

Delegates at the world’s largest conference on endangered species have voted to end the cruel capture and export of wild African elephants to zoos worldwide, giving these beleaguered animals, already under attack from trophy hunters and poachers, a historic win. While this vote will need to be...

Animals used by the cosmetics testing industry have long suffered in silence. But they now have a new spokesbunny, Ralph, who is telling it like it is. “Save Ralph” is a powerful stop-motion animation short film featuring Oscar winner Taika Waititi as the voice of Ralph, who is being interviewed for...

It is a heartrending story, but with a happy ending for one elephant. Suman is born into captivity to Champa, one of dozens of elephants who are used to ferry tourists up and down the hills to Amer Fort, a popular spot in Jaipur, India. When Suman is still a calf, her overworked mother, to whom she...

The Trump administration, in its final days, is attempting to undo crucial, century-old protections for migratory birds as a handout to the construction and oil and gas industries. A new rule published this week by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would exempt industries from being prosecuted or...

No one deserves to live with the suffocating stench of ammonia and floors, countertops and walls smeared with feces and filth. And yet this is what our Animal Rescue Team discovered at a residence in Topeka, Kansas, early Tuesday morning, where a total of 73 animals were languishing. Our team...

One of the great honors of being able to work toward a more humane world through our family of organizations is witnessing how public sentiments toward animals are changing across the globe. In North America, we work across the continent to effect change for animals. At the end of 2022, great...

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.

Earlier this month, authorities from the Special Area of the City of (DKI) Jakarta—the most populous metropolitan area in Indonesia, which includes the capital city—announced they have banned the dog and cat meat trades, which will save the lives of an estimated 340 dogs and countless cats per day...

Even in our age of advanced technologies, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice and rats continue to have chemicals and substances forced down their throats, dripped into their eyes or slathered on their skin to satisfy new regulatory demands that undercut progress against cosmetic animal testing. That’s why...

Last Friday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill to end the use of gas chambers for euthanasia of cats and dogs, leaving just two states in the U.S.—Missouri and Wyoming—that continue to use this cruel and archaic method. Today, only three known and active gas chambers are used for companion animals...

Most Americans do not support the wanton killing of wolves and other wildlife by trophy hunters and want them protected. But state wildlife managers, instead of respecting the majority and the science, are often eager to appease a shrinking population of trophy hunters and trappers. Nowhere is this...

In our work of helping animals, we operate with a firm conviction that everyone can change. If we are honest in our desire to do good, we have to hold to that theory of action. Fortunately, we’ve seen it again and again, and been witness to the most inspiring examples of personal transformation. One...

The Trump administration’s course on wildlife policy, riddled with handouts to trophy hunters, took another wrong turn last week with the hiring of Anna Seidman, a litigator for Safari Club International, to head a key office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The SCI is one of the world’s...

Rosemarie Haddad had recently lost her husband of many years when her beloved dog became terminally ill. The best thing she could do for her longtime companion was humane euthanasia. In a moment of grief and loneliness, she called the Petland at Carriage Place in Columbus, Ohio, to inquire about a Rottweiler puppy.