When Alongi fled the Congo in 1999, during one of Africa’s bloodiest modern wars, she hoped for a better life. Just two days after arriving in the U.S., she met an engaging young man. The two married soon after and started a family. Life was good, she says. But during her second pregnancy, her...

On the concrete front porch of this rundown row house, along a narrow street in a rough neighborhood named Hunting Park, eight men sit outside drinking one October afternoon. Two pit bulls and a small dog lie at their feet; the adjoining house next door has boards across its first-floor windows....

As the temperature plummets in many parts of the country, the HSUS sees an increase in complaints about dogs and cats left outside with no food or shelter. Here's what you can do.

One of Nicholas Dodman’s earliest patients was a small terrier who was so afraid of other dogs that he would attack them. At the park, his owner had to keep him on a leash and walk along the fence, far from where other dogs played. Dodman, director of the Animal Behavior Clinic at Tufts University...

Beth McNulty was used to seeing the occasional cat cross her property. In her rural community in Monrovia, Maryland, some of her neighbors let their pet cats roam free. And from time to time, a stray would show up and take shelter in her backyard shed. Over the years, she’d adopted two of these...

Most of the time, Tux is a good-natured, well-behaved cat, content with his indoor- only lifestyle. But whenever he looks out a window and spies a strange cat in his yard, a different side emerges. He races in circles, yowling his displeasure. He mangles window blinds and sometimes attacks his...

The suspect creeping up near my front fence was a tough character—broad-leafed and thick-stemmed and threatening to invade my property and swallow it whole if I didn’t act fast. There was no hesitation that summer morning as I headed to work: Off with his head! It was a decision made all too easy by...

Transporting animals across the country for a rescue or a better chance at adoption isn’t new. Countless animals have been transferred from cruelty cases, overwhelmed shelters or natural disasters. In the past, groups would organize truck transport and plot a course. The challenge, though, was that...

As the first morning visitors to the National Zoo stroll through the entrance, two field technicians with backpacks head in the opposite direction, over Rock Creek, across a parkway carrying commuters into downtown Washington, D.C., and up a steep, muddy hillside. Leaving runners and dog walkers in...

“There's another house burning,” Kristen Huston says, steering her white sedan, its trunk loaded with pet supplies, into one of the neighborhoods where her organization, All About Animals Rescue , does outreach. “Do you smell it?” In the back seat, HSUS staffers Jason Schipkowski and Ashley Mutch...

Update 4/3/19: A day after the Humane Society of the United States released the results of its undercover investigation and two days after police searched the premises, Petland announced that it was cutting ties with the franchise store in Fairfax, Virginia, and removed its company name from the...

There is the two-beat rhythm of suckling—perhaps the first sound a kitten hears. And there are purr-like thrums. And bird songs. Violin notes rise like cat voices, one octave or more above human speech. Below, cellos play: calm, soothing, slightly sad. This is Music for Cats , created by cellist...

The Humane Society of the United States and a coalition of 22 organizations from around the world will begin the first round of the Spayathon for Puerto Rico June 3 to 9, 2018. This ground-breaking initiative aims to spay and neuter at least 20,000 cats and dogs at no cost to pet owners across the...

To be honest, I really wanted a dog. The year was 2002. I perpetually owed $10.50 in late fees to Blockbuster Video. Text messaging was just starting to take off. And the very first American Idol winner—a woman by the name of Kelly Clarkson—was on top of the music charts with her song, “A Moment...

Moving slowly on shaky legs, Chloe, a shepherd mix, padded across the hardwood floor, circled the coffee table and stopped in front of the dog bed in the corner of the living room. She stared at the bed for several long seconds, then turned away and made another circuit of the room. “She did this...

People are more likely to adopt a shelter pet if they've spoken with someone who has already done so. On the 10th Annual Celebrate Shelter Pets Day on December 5, 2019, the Shelter Pet Project asks all pet lovers to be that someone by telling their adopted pets’ stories on social media. The Shelter...

Scamp the cat stood in front of the first obstacle, waiting for the signal that would send him speeding around the agility course.

Who knew he had it in him? Garfield—that famous (and famously self-centered) cartoon cat, who’s been known to spar with his canine housemate Odie and torture his owner Jon—actually cares about his fellow creatures. The proof? He’s lending his considerable marketing mojo to the Shelter Pet Project,...

Whether you have a chatty catty or a strong, silent type, you can learn to interpret catspeak