Four Chinese provinces will offer farmers a government buy-out or other financial help to stop breeding wild animals like civets and cobras for food. This move is part of a continuing crackdown by China and its individual provinces and cities on the nation’s rampant wildlife trade for food in the...

Colorado has just banned cages for egg-laying chickens and will require that eggs produced and sold in the state be cage-free. The bill, which passed both chambers of the state legislature in June, was signed moments ago by Gov. Jared Polis. The new law will spare approximately six million chickens...

We have just secured another monumental win for hens confined in tiny cages in the egg industry. Moments ago, Oregon Governor Kate Brown signed legislation championed by the HSUS to require all eggs produced or sold in her state to come from cage-free facilities. With Oregon’s new law, the entire...

Ahold Delhaize, the company that owns some of the largest grocery chains in the United States, including Food Lion, Giant Food, the GIANT Company, Hannaford and Stop & Shop, has announced it will only sell eggs from cage-free chickens across all its stores by 2025 or sooner. The company will also...

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson Slaughterhouses in the United States are already allowed to kill pigs at a lightning speed of up to 1,106 animals per hour. Under a new federal rule announced today, some of these facilities can dial up those speeds even further, with no limit whatsoever, creating an...

Utah has just passed a law prohibiting the confinement of egg-laying hens in tiny wire enclosures known as “battery cages,” becoming the eighth U.S. state to do so. Just moments ago, Gov. Spencer Cox signed the bill—which the state’s legislature passed earlier this month—marking another major...

Today, the United States Supreme Court declined to take the North American Meat Institute’s appeal of its lawsuit challenging Proposition 12, widely considered the world’s strongest law for farm animal protection. Proposition 12 bans the extreme confinement of egg-laying chickens, mother pigs and...

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the world to acknowledge the pressing need to change our relationship with animals. From the wildlife markets implicated in the origin of the novel coronavirus to the slaughterhouses that have become clusters for its spread, we now know only too well that our...

A California judge has rejected an attempt by the meat lobby to stop Proposition 12, the state’s historic law that would ban the extreme cage confinement of egg-laying hens, mother pigs and baby veal calves, from going into effect. This is an important win for farm animals: Prop 12 has been called...

Moments ago, Michigan passed into law a ban on the production and sale of eggs from chickens locked in cruel cages. This is a remarkable and historic moment in our work to end the cage confinement of farm animals. Michigan is a major Midwestern agriculture state -- and one of our nation’s largest...

For decades, the welfare of most chickens raised and slaughtered for meat has been deeply concerning: These “broiler chickens” have been selectively bred for rapid weight gain and muscle mass to such an extreme that they are inherently prone to painful, debilitating leg problems and have difficulty...

Only a few years ago, it may have appeared unfathomable for McDonald’s to make a commitment to use 100% cage-free eggs in its restaurants, or for poultry giant Perdue to announce game-changing reforms for chickens raised for meat. One might have never imagined entire states, including California...

Fashion seasons and runway shows without animal fur. Organ-on-a-chip technologies for testing cosmetics and other products. A transition to cage-free and crate-free systems that can change the lives of countless chickens and pigs in vast food supply networks. Plant-based meals in major restaurant...

A federal district court has cleared the way for our lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s irresponsible and dangerous plans for responding to outbreaks of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, commonly known as the “bird flu.” The agency’s current plans, which we and our allies...

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...

As a result of slaughterhouse closures during the pandemic, some producers have used a cruel method called “ventilation shutdown,” or VSD, to kill whole herds of pigs. Ventilator shutdown involves locking a flock or herd of animals in a building and turning off the ventilation systems. As the...

Today, in a crucial victory for animals, President Trump signed into law the Farm Bill minus the anti-animal King amendment but with three pro-animal measures. This is an outcome the Humane Society Legislative Fund had long worked for, along with our Humane Society of the United States legal and...

With the confirmed deaths of 3.4 million chickens and 5,500 hogs in North Carolina’s factory farms during Hurricane Florence, and the toxic torrent released by the flooded-out fecal lagoons of the industry in that state, a look at federal policy on factory farming could not be more timely. Through...

At the Super Bowl this year, we caught a glimpse of the future of food from an unlikely source: Carl’s Jr. During the big game, the fast food chain advertised its new Beyond Burger — a patty that tastes just like meat, but is entirely plant-based. For a major fast food chain to announce a plant...