Just as a historic freeze sent temperatures plummeting in Texas in February, overwhelming the state’s power grid, breaking pipes and leaving roads slick with ice, a strange call came into the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office near San Antonio. Someone said they heard an animal crying outside their...

BOSTON—Today the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development heard testimony on bills prohibiting the use of elephants, big cats, primates, giraffes and bears in traveling exhibits and shows (H.3245 and S.2197/S.2189). This critical, bipartisan legislation serves to...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263) by a vote of 278 to 134. The bill would prohibit keeping tigers, lions and other big cat species as pets, and ban direct public contact like cub petting. Sponsored and championed by Rep. Michael Quigley...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate just passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263, Senate companion bill S. 1210) by unanimous consent. This follows the bill’s passage by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 29. The legislation prohibits keeping tigers, lions and other big cat species as pets, and...

The first time Tim Harrison rescued privately owned big cats was back in 1982. A public safety officer at the time, Harrison and other responders found a male lion pacing around a small enclosure, a lion cub who appeared severely ill, bears, snakes and other animals on an Ohio property. It was rare...

Danielle Tepper had always loved dolphins. When she went on vacation to Hawai'i, she knew she had to see them firsthand. Tepper—now a senior editor at the Humane Society of the United States—wanted to do it ethically, so she avoided captive dolphin attractions. Instead, she booked an excursion to...

WASHINGTON—Today, a diverse group of equine industry and animal welfare organizations announced the Final Stretch Alliance to End Horse Slaughter—a collaborative effort to permanently ban the slaughter of American horses. In an open letter to congressional leaders, including House Speaker Nancy...

TEXAS—In May 2021, the headline-making search for a missing pet tiger named India was underway in Houston. Once he was found by authorities, the nine-month-old, 134-pound cub was transported to his forever home at Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas. This month marks India’s one year anniversary...

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana’s law prohibiting direct public contact with big cats and bears goes into effect on July 1. Implementation of this law brings much needed protection for some of the animals who have been subjected to public handling and forced to live in abysmal facilities in the state...

WASHINGTON—Today, 202 veterinarians sent a letter to the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary expressing support for the Save America’s Forgotten Equines Act, H.R. 3355/S. 2732, federal legislation to permanently prohibit the slaughter of...

To thrive, horses require healthy amounts of food and water, adequate shelter and competent care. Horse owners must commit a great deal of time, energy, skill and money to ensuring their horses have everything they need to live a happy, healthy life of thirty years or more. Any time a horse changes...

NEW YORK—The Humane Society of the United States released the findings of a recent undercover investigation at Sloth Encounters in Hauppauge, New York, owned by Larry Wallach. The investigator captured disturbing footage of staff hitting sloths, stressed sloths kept in crowded conditions, sloths...