We have good news to share from Mississippi and Iowa, the only two states in the nation without a law on the books that would make acts of animal torture, like burning, drowning and intentional starvation, an automatic felony. Recently, Mississippi’s state legislature passed a bill that would do...

Missouri has finally moved to close down a puppy mill owner who’s been on the radar of federal and state inspectors for more than two decades for serious neglect of animals in her facility. Marilyn Shepherd (a.k.a. Marilyn Williams) and her Cedercrest Kennel (a.k.a. Pup 4 U) had operated without a...

The mistreatment of animals is a matter of injustice, and so it’s only fitting that the U.S. Department of Justice stepped in to stop cruelty at Even Keel Exotics in Temperance, Michigan. The DOJ’s recent resolution of a complaint against the facility’s owner, animal dealer Zachery Keeler, resulted...

New York has the dubious distinction of being home to more puppy-selling pet stores than any other state in the nation. This could be about to change as lawmakers there move on legislation that would prohibit all dog, cat and rabbit sales in pet stores. Bills have already been introduced in the...

Our team has just completed the first stage of Spayathon for Puerto Rico, an ambitious initiative to spay and neuter 20,000 cats and dogs at no cost to pet owners on the island, and it’s been an amazing success. For seven days, surgical teams, ground teams of trained volunteers and staff members...

Poverty and structural inequality create barriers to accessing healthy food, education, jobs, health care and housing. Pet resources are no different. Over 20 million pets experience poverty with their families in the U.S., and 70% of these pets have never seen a veterinarian. Our More Than a Pet campaign is leading the charge to raise awareness of this overlooked national crisis and to attract new corporate support to increase access to pet resources and veterinary services and help keep people and pets together. This year, with the help of our partners—Smalls, Tractive, Motel 6 and TQL—we’re introducing the More Than a Pet Community Hero Award to honor three individuals for their exceptional contributions to their communities.

The joy, unconditional love and health benefits of the human-animal bond are priceless, but the sad reality is that millions of pets in the U.S. are living in poverty with their families. Rising inflation and systemic poverty have left many families struggling to access essential care and supplies...

The people have spoken: On September 29, Humane Society International/UK and coalition partners presented the UK government with a petition that included almost 300,000 signatures in support of a nationwide fur and foie gras import ban. The handover of the petition coincided with indications that...

Earlier this month we told you about Lucky, a dog saved moments before slaughter in Yulin, as the city began preparing for its infamous lychee and dog meat “festival” later in June. Since Lucky’s rescue, local activists have been vigilant in their determination to end this event for good. In the...

Since we started publishing our Horrible Hundred reports about puppy and kitten mills across the U.S. in 2013 almost 250 of these high-volume breeding facilities have finally closed.

Last week, a trophy hunter killed a mountain lion in Nebraska and posted a photo of himself on social media with the dead animal, a one-and-a-half-year-old male. While most Americans would find this unnecessary killing of a majestic native carnivore horrifying by itself, the facts behind this...

A decade ago, our undercover investigation delved into the bizarre world of Joseph Maldonado-Passage (aka Joe Exotic) and his roadside zoo, GW Exotics. For years, Joe and his band of untrained workers kept hundreds of big cats and other wild animals in captivity in barren conditions, bred them to...

I arrived at Project Chimps yesterday just as dinner was being served to its residents: 79 retired research chimpanzees who now call this verdant, 236-acre sanctuary nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia their home. The building we were in is a brand-new, state-of-the-art structure named...

In a country where political tempers often run hot, agreement can seem incredibly rare. But, regardless of party affiliation, a consensus is emerging that our companion animals should be treated with basic decency—and this is not how kitten and puppy mills treat dogs and cats. While we advocate for...

A New York pet store that sold numerous sick puppy mill dogs to unsuspecting consumers now faces a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court for allegedly failing to give proper medical care to sick puppies and deceiving buyers about their health. The store’s former owner may have to pay nearly $4 million...

In recent years, our nation has witnessed an epidemic of people acquiring exotic wildlife as pets. Wild animals, including lions, tigers, bears, chimpanzees, monkeys, venomous snakes, alligators and other dangerous species are readily available from breeders and even over the Internet. In private...

With Gov. Kathy Hochul’s signature earlier this month, New York became the 10 th state in the U.S. to prevent the sale of cosmetics that have been newly tested on animals. This represents just the latest gain in a worldwide movement to end cosmetics animal testing on animals. Worldwide, we’re up to...

We’ve known “Joe Exotic” (Joe Schreibvogel) for a long while, and we know him well. This week, we’re releasing additional footage from the Humane Society of the United States investigations focusing on Joe, Doc Antle and other wild animal breeders and traders that began in 2011. For those fighting...

Recently, as people are starting to head back into the office, I’ve been getting questions about what’s happening with “pandemic pets” — dogs, cats and other animals who people brought into their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Reporters want to know whether we have noticed any trends — are...

Over the weekend, Americans were shocked by an incident at the Conservators Center in North Carolina, a privately run wild animal menagerie, where a 22-year-old intern who was cleaning an enclosure was attacked and killed by a lion. Law enforcement shot and killed the lion in order to retrieve the...