We’re delighted to welcome the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey’s Pinelands region to the Humane Stewardship Alliance. With 767 acres of swamps, bogs, forests, fields and lakes, this new HSA member’s land supports an impressive array of woodland warblers and other songbirds, several owl...

One of the Humane Stewardship Alliance’s newest members—Nirvana Ridge Wildlife Refuge—is a 170-acre property in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Here, Karen Lamb, Refuge founder and a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, provides safe habitat for wildlife and essential care for orphaned, sick...

A bright, loud fireworks display flashing across the night sky is often considered a fun hallmark of seasonal pastimes like baseball games and barbecues. Yet these blasts of sound and flashing color can easily frighten and even harm animals—and not just our pets. Humans jump at unexpected loud...

In September 2020, Rick Haaland, the Pets for Life community outreach manager for the Leech Lake Tribal Police in northern Minnesota, answered a call about a large dog named Winston. The dog had gotten into an altercation with a porcupine and was covered in quills. When Haaland saw Winston at the...

WARNING: This page contains graphic content. In the spring of 2020, an HSUS investigator noticed something unusual: Just as some annual in-person killing contests for coyotes, foxes, bobcats and other animals were being canceled because of COVID-19, groups devoted to online killing contests were...

The young Belgian Malinois was only supposed to stay with Lisa Kauffman for a month. Kauffman, HSUS wildlife protection public policy program manager, welcomed Emmie into her home last October after she was found as an underweight stray and brought to a California shelter. Kauffman planned to care...

It’s March 2021, and then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki is holding a press conference. Newly elected President Joe Biden has been in office for less than two months, and the hard-charging White House press corps, always on the lookout for broken political promises, wants answers about the...

Many of my guests don’t believe me when I tell them I have two cats. They see Toothless crying for attention and plopping on the ground for belly rubs, while the only signs of a second cat are the two food and water bowls in my kitchen. Boots is long gone under the bed by the time visitors enter my...

They were like moths to a flame or, more accurately, butterflies to a native plant. No sooner had I unloaded two joe-pye weed perennials from my car last August than three tiger swallowtails dive-bombed the pots, as if to validate my purchase. If only my fellow shoppers knew what they were missing...

Two decrepit barns, thick with dust and cobwebs, greeted rescuers when they arrived at a rural Ohio property on a cold fall morning. “It really, truly looked abandoned, except there were animals living in there,” says Laura Koivula, director of animal crimes and investigations for our Animal Rescue...

In October 2021, the Humane Society of the United States arrived in Muncie, Indiana to assist local police in rescuing of dozens of cats from an alleged severe neglect situation. Video producer Thom Stromer joined the HSUS Animal Rescue Team to assist with the rescue and document the scene and the...

The Humane Society of the United States is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for shooting a cat with an arrow in Cedar County, Iowa. The Case: Around Oct. 30, 2022, family members found Atticus...

MONTCLAIR, N.J.—The Humane Society of the United States is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for throwing a kitten out of the window of a moving vehicle. The case: On June 24, 2022, between noon...

The jogger crossed Francis Scott Key Bridge every day—and every day, she saw the goose underneath it. Worried the bird was stuck, she called the Humane Rescue Alliance in Washington, D.C. The lower bridge was only accessible by boat, but thanks to HRA’s relationship with a local fire department...

For years we managed our lovable but anxious cat’s behavior in ways that, looking back, seem silly. Pepper, an indoor cat, would become upset if she looked through the sliding glass door in our kitchen and saw another cat passing through our backyard. As she began to growl, we would hastily retreat...

While soaking her raised beds in preparation for tomato planting last summer, Gail Goldman was startled to see a tiny, waterlogged creature pop up out of the soil. Later another one briefly poked out his head. “Basically, I was watering shrews,” the Seattle gardener says of her foiled vegetable...

It starts out mildly enough: Heading to work on the subway, you realize you forgot your wallet. No big deal, you think. I’ll borrow money to get home. Soon the lights go out and the train hurtles toward the sky, speeding through the atmosphere. Time passes—it’s hard to tell how long. The subway is...

FORT MYERS, Fla.—The Humane Society of the United States is on the ground helping animals and communities impacted by the deadly Hurricane Ian. Responders from the HSUS deployed to Charlotte County, Florida, to assist with rescue calls and community outreach in the days following the storm...

WASHINGTON—As inflation pushes prices higher, many families across the country are struggling to afford veterinary care, food and supplies for their beloved pets. Nowhere is this more acute than for families who were already experiencing systemic poverty. According to the latest consumer price index...

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...