Each year, millions of homeless pets enter U.S. shelters and approximately two million dogs and cats are euthanized. This is a huge improvement since the 1970s when it was closer to 15 million, but it’s still too many. That’s why ending pet homelessness is a key goal for the Humane Society of the...
In September last year, an HSUS undercover investigation of a Petland store in Frisco, Texas, a city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, revealed frail and ailing puppies, including some dogs too sick to eat and suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. Also among the gruesome discoveries was a...
On December 11, we released the results of our shocking undercover investigation at two Petland locations, one in Las Vegas and another in Kennesaw, Georgia, where our investigators found several sick puppies and a dead puppy in a freezer. When we started the investigation, we were familiar with the...
Last year, a state inspector visiting Wendy Pets, a puppy mill in Seneca, Kansas, found 24 dogs had simply disappeared from the facility. When asked, a representative told the inspector he had “euthanized” the dogs by shooting them. Although he had been breeding dogs for years, he claimed “he wasn’t...
Americans are taking a stand against one of the gravest assaults on animal welfare, unfolding right now in the U.S. Congress, where a radical faction of the pork industry is pushing to include the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act (H.R. 4417/S. 2019) in the Farm Bill. We’re not going...
Former Petland manager pleads guilty to animal cruelty, faces jail time following HSUS investigation
The former manager of a now-closed Petland store in Fairfax County, Virginia, where our undercover investigation revealed a pile of dead rabbits in the freezer and a shocking lack of veterinary care, has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and three other charges of failing to provide adequate care for...
Inscribing the humane treatment of animals into our laws takes years, and so we are heartened by some key measures at the state level taking effect in 2024, which are the result of so much rallying and advocacy, and which will contribute to shaping the humane world we envision. As of Jan. 1, 2024, California’s Proposition 12, widely considered the world’s strongest law for the protection of farm animals, now enjoys full implementation.
For the last eight years, we have published the annual Horrible Hundred report listing 100 problem puppy mills in the United States. We do this to raise awareness about and fight a deep-seated problem of irresponsible and greedy commercial dog sellers who mistreat the animals they profit from, often...
Our mission is to build a more humane world for animals, and over the past few weeks, I have been reflecting on our progress toward this vision by recounting 2023’s wins for animals of all kinds: wildlife, dogs, cats and other companion animals, animals used in labs, and animals farmed for food and for fur.
Note: This blog is part of a series highlighting how we fight—and win—for animals. For this post, I join with Sara Amundson, president of the Humane Society Legislative Fund, to tell the story about how we tackle institutionalized animal suffering by changing laws and government regulations. “Why...
Earlier this week, we released our Horrible Hundred report, a roundup of 100 puppy mills that keep churning out dogs in dismal conditions to be sold through pet stores, flea markets and websites across the country. This report gained headlines in top local media outlets, including ABC , Axios, the...
Puppy sellers routinely use deceptive practices to lure consumers into buying sick puppy mill dogs – practices we recently documented in our 10-year Puppy Buyers Complaints report. This week, taking our battle against these puppy sellers one step further, we filed a legal petition with the Federal...
For dogs bred in puppy mills, there are no good days. They are crammed into small spaces, often denied basic needs like food and water and veterinary care, and they rarely, if ever, get the human companionship and enrichment that makes their lives better and healthier. There is no excuse for such...
HSUS colleagues make it a special holiday season for sick puppies relinquished by New York pet store
The holidays were busier and happier in at least three HSUS households this season, as colleagues stepped up to care for three puppies relinquished by the American Kennels pet store in New York City. The relinquishments of Rocky, an Akita, Rosie, a Morkie and Pogo, a Jack Russell terrier, came on...
Right now, as they do every year, our opponents are mobilizing in state legislatures around the country to halt the march forward for animal protection. Even as we have worked with countless stakeholders to win passage of hundreds of bills and local ordinances year after year, our opponents have dug...
Pet stores like Petland and internet puppy sellers routinely deceive unsuspecting customers into buying animals who are bred in inhumane puppy mills and who could be sick or even dying. Today, we are calling on the Federal Trade Commission, the agency charged with consumer protection, to crack down...
