This Friday, with the release of Disney’s “Black Beauty,” a new generation of moviegoers will be introduced to Anna Sewell’s beloved story of a horse who goes from a carefree life as a foal to one filled with troubles before returning home to peace and love. The book, narrated as an autobiographical...

For human beings, the end of summer can mean squeezing in a few last trips to the beach or mountains before school begins and the pace of work picks up. But for bears, the end of summer is a vital life stage; it’s when they start a feeding frenzy called “hyperphagia,” which involves seeking food and...

Whenever I see social media posts by trophy hunters gleefully posing with the animals they’ve killed, I have a feeling of deep loss, for the individual animals slain, for those animals’ families and social networks, and for our planet. And I also feel a deep outrage, because to me those images stand...

So many of us were saddened this week to learn about the death of Beulah the elephant, who spent most of her 54 years in captivity and chains, working for a Connecticut-based traveling petting zoo. Beulah was just six years old when she was sold to the R. W. Commerford & Sons Traveling Petting Zoo...

The exploitation and abuse of big cats as props for paid public interactions at roadside attractions will soon be a thing of the past. As we recently shared, the Big Cat Public Safety Act, something we’ve been working on for over a decade, passed the U.S. Senate and just became law. It’s the...

In a major win for America’s most imperiled wildlife, this week a U.S. federal judge voided a package of regulations enacted by the Trump administration that weakened the Endangered Species Act. We’ve been fighting these dangerous rollbacks since they were proposed. And as soon as they were enacted...

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson Weather-related disasters such as floods and wildfires are occurring more frequently and with increasing intensity across the United States. While there is a federal law that requires state and local authorities to consider household pets and service animals in their...

Nevada, one of the last remaining states without a ban on the ownership of exotic wild animals as pets, is now moving to pass a law to do exactly that. A bill, SB 344, recently passed the Senate and now awaits action in the Assembly. It would, among other measures, end the private ownership of...

Spring is a crucial time for black bears: After emerging from their dens following months in winter hibernation, many spend the first few weeks building up strength by eating mainly grasses and other plants. Mother bears are especially weak, having spent the last few months nursing cubs hungry for...

I was happy to see that so many viewers enjoyed watching the fun video of animals enjoying the summer at our Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Texas. You can watch it here. As it turns out, when it’s hot out, bears, gibbons, horses, monkeys, pigs and tigers in sanctuary are not different from us...

Just a few weeks short of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act’s passage, opponents in the U.S. Congress have pushed through a series of hostile amendments to undermine the landmark law during the House appropriations funding process. That’s the grim reality of the contemporary...

In a triumph for wild animals and the people who advocate for their protection, Belgium’s Parliament voted to prohibit the importation of hunting trophies from many endangered species into the country. This means that trophy hunters who pay top dollar to travel abroad to shoot endangered animals to death will no longer be able to bring home animal body parts to hang on their walls.

Update (10/26/2021): The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed rules to rescind two Trump-era critical habitat regulations. If these rules are finalized, they will restore the definition of "habitat" and regulations that govern critical habitat exclusions...

A new National Park Service proposed rule marks a substantial step forward for some of our nation’s most iconic wildlife species, including brown and black bears and wolves. The NPS rule would ban certain extremely cruel methods of trophy hunting and trapping on Alaska’s national preserves. We have...

Update 12/1/22: The start of the New Jersey bear hunt has been put on indefinite hold, as we, along with the Animal Protection League of New Jersey and Friends of Animals, challenge the decision to hold the hunt in court. In a stunningly shortsighted and ill-advised decision, New Jersey officials...

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson Today, we are releasing chilling footage of Andrew and Owen Renner’s now infamous – and illegal – black bear trophy hunt in Alaska last April, so you can see what grisly fate awaits the state’s native carnivores if the U.S. government goes ahead with a proposal to...

Early this morning, 171 dogs from South Korean dog meat farms landed at Dulles International Airport to start new lives, and on this first day of their bright futures, I am reminded of how critical our day-to-day work is. Every time Humane Society International shuts down a dog meat farm it has a...

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources voted in favor of six bills and resolutions that threaten to remove protections from grizzly bears and gray wolves and weaken the Endangered Species Act. This “grab bag” of danger includes: The Trust the Science Act, H.R. 764...

Europe’s highest court has ruled that wolves in the European Union cannot be hunted, except in the rarest cases where member countries can prove there is no other option to end human-wolf conflict. The European Court of Justice ruling followed a challenge to a decision by the Finland government to...

The nation’s most authoritative voice on infectious diseases today sounded a stern warning about the dangers of the wildlife trade and its relationship to pandemic diseases like COVID-19. In an interview with Fox News, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci called for the global community to pressure China and other...