With the recent passage of a bill that gained unanimous support in the House of Lords, England has joined a handful of countries and a host of companies and institutions around the world that have banned glue traps. For mice and rats, the traps’ primary targets, who are so often excluded from...

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson In an unlawful move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has decided to exempt massive factory farms from reporting their toxic air emissions -- released from animal waste created by these facilities -- to state and local authorities. The rule, finalized last...

The federal government has handed out a record number of waivers this month for chicken slaughterhouses to dial up the already dangerous speeds at which they kill birds. The development not only raises animal welfare concerns, but it comes at a time when slaughterhouses have emerged as major...

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...

Last month, so many Floridians were shocked when the decaying body of a yearling bear cub, fondly nicknamed Bailey by members of the sprawling community that he sometimes visited, was discovered. This was an unlawful killing on its face, one that violated Florida regulations, but what was even more...

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...

In a monumental step forward for birds who are often exploited in the pet trade, exhibitions and breeding, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has just enacted federal protections for birds used in commerce. This win is the result of a decades-long legal effort by animal organizations. Now these...

We begin our work in 2022 encouraged by the knowledge that a handful of significant animal protection laws at the state level have now taken effect across the country. That makes for a great start to a year in which we hope to extend the reach of our campaigns to help all animals. Two ballot...

So much of our work centers on making positive progress for animals, helping to pass state or federal laws to ensure their protection, working on corporate social responsibility campaigns to get companies to change their practices or appealing directly to the public to raise awareness. But sometimes...

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...

Update 11/15/21: President Biden signed the bipartisan infrastructure package into law. The infrastructure bill included $350 million dollars for wildlife crossings, which is a huge victory for wildlife and people! This critical funding will go towards creating wildlife bridges across busy...

Twenty of Hollywood’s biggest names, including Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon and Joaquin Phoenix, today sent a joint letter to McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook, urging the company to institute commonsense animal welfare reforms advocated by the Humane Society of the United States. The letter, which...

The dog days of summer, where temperatures climb and people head outdoors, have nearly arrived. It is especially important to keep animals in mind during this active season—not just the companions in our homes but also the wild animals we may encounter while hiking in a national park or visiting a...

In recent years, new research has changed traditional advice around how to help cats found outside. Some of the cats may have homes and know how to reach them. Some may be “community cats” cared for by several local families, and their home is exactly where they are. These cats, especially when they...

The floods have now abated in Kerala, but they’ve left massive destruction in their wake. Millions of people and animals have been left homeless by the calamity that has also claimed more than 400 human lives and, according to the government of Kerala, millions of animals, including large numbers of...

Today, the Humane Society of the United States asked the Federal Trade Commission, the government agency charged with protecting consumers, to investigate allegedly deceptive marketing claims made by Pilgrim’s Pride, the second largest chicken producer in the United States, which wrongly leads...

In recent weeks, even as slaughterhouses have emerged as hotspots for the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration has been quietly issuing record numbers of waivers for them to kill animals at higher speeds. Now, a coalition of animal welfare groups, workers groups and consumer organizations...

A coalition including the Humane Society of the United States today sued the Trump administration for allowing chicken slaughterhouses to dial up the breakneck speeds at which they kill birds. The increase, announced in 2018, allows slaughterhouses that receive a waiver from the administration to...

Today the Humane Society of the United States filed a federal lawsuit challenging the response plan for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (or “bird flu”) of the United States Department of Agriculture. The response plan, produced by the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, is shortsighted and...