Arizona today banned all wildlife killing contests for coyotes, bobcats, foxes and other animals, joining a growing number of states taking action to stop these gruesome events in which participants vie for cash and prizes for killing the most or heaviest animals within a specific time period. The...

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson We have terrific news to report in our long-running fight to protect Tennessee walking horses and related breeds from the cruel practice of soring. The House of Representatives has just approved a bill to end this heinous practice in which violators intentionally...

Mink on two fur farms in Utah have tested positive for the coronavirus. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported today that “unusually large” numbers of animals had died at the two farms, which also reported positive cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in people who had contact...

The Dutch parliament has voted to permanently shut down an estimated 128 mink fur farms in the wake of coronavirus outbreaks on 17 of these farms since April. If approved by the Dutch government, the decision would bring a welcome end to the cruel business of fur farming in the country—a business...

Israel yesterday announced it intends to ban the fur trade. If successful, it would be the first nation to end the buying and selling of a cruel commodity that has fallen out of favor in the fashion industry and with consumers. Israel’s ban would make only a few minor exceptions for religious...

The bizarre saga of a former Oklahoma roadside zoo owner, whose menagerie of hundreds of dangerous exotic animals was exposed in a 2011 HSUS undercover investigation, reached a dramatic conclusion yesterday when a federal jury found him guilty on charges that included killing five tigers and hiring...

Mink have tested positive for the coronavirus on a fur farm in Wisconsin, the largest fur producing U.S. state. The news broke today even as media reports confirmed thousands of mink have died of the disease on fur farms in Utah, the first state to report such infections on mink farms in August. The...

Nordstrom, one of the country’s largest luxury fashion retailers, will stop selling products made with fur and exotic animal skins at all of its U.S. locations by the end of next year. Nordstrom joins a growing number of retailers like Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s that have announced fur-free policies...

Saks Fifth Avenue, a North American retailer synonymous with luxury fashion, announced today that it will end sales of all fur products in its stores by the end of 2022. Saks follows in the footsteps of other major retailers, including Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, all of which have adopted...

President Trump’s pardon of Joe Exotic is an affront to animal-loving Americans, Republican, Democrat and independent, and it will be viewed with outrage today and for many years to come. Joe Exotic, a.k.a. Joseph Maldonado Passage is a serial tiger abuser/killer who was serving a 22-year sentence...

Early Monday morning, our Animal Rescue Team arrived at two properties in Milburn, Oklahoma, with officers from the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office, who served search warrants as part of an alleged animal cruelty situation. Law enforcement requested our assistance with rescuing potentially hundreds of dogs from two dog breeding operations.

At a pet store located next to a flea market in Burnside, Kentucky, on Wednesday morning, members of our rescue team encountered nightmarish conditions for dozens of animals. The details of the scene were heartbreaking to hear. The air inside the store was musty and difficult to breathe. A sulcata...

In 1970, the U.S. Congress passed the Horse Protection Act to end the cruel practice of horse soring, which is the use of caustic chemicals, chains, weighted shoes, hard objects, cutting and other painful techniques to force horses to perform the artificial, high-stepping gait known as the "Big Lick" in order to win prizes in horse shows. Despite that law’s passage 53 years ago, the abuse has continued unabated as a scofflaw faction of the Tennessee walking horse industry insists on flouting the law. Now we have a chance to end it once and for all.

Dead rabbits piled up in a freezer and hidden under a table in a back room were among the many shocking discoveries made at a Petland store in Fairfax, Virginia, during a five-month hidden camera investigation by the Humane Society of the United States. But what our undercover investigator, who...

A federal judge has dismissed a court challenge to Maryland’s landmark law prohibiting the sales of puppies and kittens in pet stores, giving animals and consumers a huge victory in the fight against puppy mills. The ruling today means the law, which went into effect in the state at the start of the...

In a landmark announcement that brings us closer than ever to the demise of fur, Macy’s Inc. — the parent company of the iconic American department stores Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s — says it will go fur-free by the end of 2020. This includes permanently closing all of its fur vaults and salons...

Massachusetts has just banned cruel wildlife killing contests, becoming the fifth state, after Vermont, California, New Mexico and Arizona, to take a firm stance against these gruesome events in which participants compete to win cash and prizes for killing the most or heaviest animals. The...

It’s a difficult video to watch: a mob of men armed with sticks and spears repeatedly strike a tiger lying on the grass with shouts of “kill, kill.” They beat the animal so badly, according to media reports, that she died of shock hours later as a result of blood loss, broken bones and numerous...

California has once again topped our 2018 Humane State rankings list, after overwhelmingly passing the strongest farm animal protection law in the world, and by enacting a law that bans the sale of cosmetics tested on animals -- the first U.S. state to do so. Oregon, which has some of the strongest...

Last week, in an alarming incident at the Syria Shrine Circus in Pittsburgh, a frightened camel sent six injured children and one adult to the hospital. The camel became spooked while giving rides, reportedly after a child threw a shovel at the animal. A circusgoer captured much of the chaos on...