Imagine a chicken. Picture her downy white feathers and small, intense eyes. Maybe she’s sitting on a nest, softly clucking. Perhaps she’s scratching in the dirt, a quaint red barn in silhouette behind her. Cows graze contentedly nearby; a pig snuffles in the mud. It’s an idyllic vision, familiar...

Most animals in our food system live in dismal conditions. Mother pigs are locked in gestation crates so small they can’t turn around. Egg-laying hens are crammed into cages so tightly they can’t even spread their wings. And chickens in the poultry industry are bred to grow so large so fast that...

Our food system has a significant impact on the environment in various ways. One of the key factors is the greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) produced by the global food system, which accounts for 20% to 37% of all GHGs. Animal products, such as meat and dairy, have a much larger environmental...

The Humane Society of the United States has released its Protein Sustainability Scorecard, taking a close look at the food service industry in the U.S. and progress toward offering climate-friendly, plant-based foods. To meet client demand and public sentiment, virtually every major food service...

Many Marches ago, as I mindlessly contorted myself to pull a deep-rooted weed from the garden patch, my thoughts turned longingly to the smell of fresh basil that would eventually grace what I saw as a still-barren vegetable graveyard. This spot was not so lifeless as it appeared, I would soon learn...

Around the world, animals used for meat, eggs and dairy often suffer on factory farms where they are treated as units of production rather than living, feeling creatures. The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International present comprehensive reports on animal agribusiness and...

We zigzag from tree to tree, seeking refuge under the leaf umbrellas. Drizzle turns to deluge as we dash beneath a tall canopy to plot our escape. The sky booms. My dad takes my hand, and I look up to see if he shares my sense of foreboding. But he’s smiling at me, his eyes twinkling. He says...

Hummingbirds are top contenders for many avian superlatives: Bee hummingbirds are the smallest birds in the world, as diminutive as their insect namesake. In proportion to their body sizes, rufous hummingbirds make one of the longest migrations and Anna’s hummingbirds fly faster than space shuttles...

LPM Holding Company Inc and Affiliates, a family-owned business serving predominantly business and industry food service operations, has launched a re-designed, innovative plant-based concept companywide in collaboration with the Humane Society of the United States, committing that 40% of its menu...

To experience the natural world, we often navigate congested highways to swim in the sea, fly over patchworked terrain to hike through preserved forests and climb distant mountaintops to catch rare views. Largely because of our ever-increasing mobility, the areas nearest to us are rarely the dearest...

ANN ARBOR, Michigan—The University of Michigan has committed to having 55% plant-based offerings on menus by 2025, in collaboration with the Humane Society of the United States. As part of this effort, HSUS chefs provided a plant-based culinary training to the university culinary staff, assisted...

Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States responds to today's Supreme Court decision: "We’re delighted that the Supreme Court has upheld California Proposition 12—the nation’s strongest farm animal welfare law—and made clear that preventing animal cruelty and...

You’d think it would be easy to persuade people to protect prairie dogs: Not only are they a keystone species, with nine other species directly dependent on them for survival, but they’re also irresistibly cute, with big eyes and big personalities. Yet the personable little rodents often find...

In a quiet corner of Black Beauty Ranch, on a stone plinth beneath a maple tree, there’s an oval etching of a man and a burro. The man is Cleveland Amory, author and founder of the Fund for Animals, and the burro is Friendly, one of the first animals to call the sanctuary home. The two met in 1980...

The suspect creeping up near my front fence was a tough character—broad-leafed and thick-stemmed and threatening to invade my property and swallow it whole if I didn’t act fast. There was no hesitation that summer morning as I headed to work: Off with his head! It was a decision made all too easy by...

Wherever you are in the U.S., a coyote may be taking up residence less than a mile away. If you live in the city, you’re more likely than your rural cousins to encounter raccoons. And regardless of geography, you probably share your home with dozens of species of insects and spiders. These facts...

As monarch butterflies and hummingbirds headed south this fall, I dreamt of following my favorite snowbirds to Mexico and Central America. But I stayed home instead, where I have a window onto the spectacular world of winter wildlife: northern flickers tossing maple leaves with their beaks in search...

If I hadn’t been watching with my own eyes, I might not have believed it myself. But here she was, a monarch butterfly, intently probing a dead plant in the middle of a vibrant patch of flowers she all but ignored. Unaware of the scientific literature, she didn’t know that her kind wasn’t supposed...

White-tailed deer, North America’s most abundant larger herbivore, number an estimated 30 to 35 million in the United States, found in every state but Alaska, California, Hawai'i, Nevada and Utah. With hunting restrictions, their population has rebounded to where it was before Europeans arrived...