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Today the Humane Society of the United States filed a lawsuit against Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, for misleading consumers about animal abuse in its supply chain. A little background: It is common practice in big animal agriculture to use “ gestation crates.” These cages are

This week, our Animal Rescue and Response team was dispatched to Indiana to help rescue dozens of cats from a house in Muncie. I had the honor of being with them, on the ground, seeing the first moments these cats got the love and care they so desperately needed. When I first entered the house, a

One of the most remarkable things about saving animals is what happens after the drama of their rescues is over: They begin to experience the daily pleasures they deserve, like having fields of fresh grass to lie on, rather than cement or metal bars. There was nothing quite like the unbridled joy

Our mission is to build a more humane world, 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.

I’ve talked about access to care as a defining animal welfare issue of our time: Everyone caring for a companion animal deserves and should be able to obtain necessary resources for their animal’s health and wellbeing. And certainly, the absence of resources shouldn’t mean that people shouldn’t

Rosemarie Haddad had recently lost her husband of many years when her beloved dog became terminally ill. The best thing she could do for her longtime companion was humane euthanasia. In a moment of grief and loneliness, she called the Petland at Carriage Place in Columbus, Ohio, to inquire about a

No one deserves to live with the suffocating stench of ammonia and floors, countertops and walls smeared with feces and filth. And yet this is what our Animal Rescue Team discovered at a residence in Topeka, Kansas, early Tuesday morning, where a total of 73 animals were languishing. Our team

I recently discussed the benefits of reducing the consumption of animal products both for farmed animals and for the climate. But there are many other potential beneficiaries of a revamping of how animals are bred and farmed in various contexts, from ranches to fur farms. Here are some of the wild

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

As a result of strong opposition from our team and wildlife advocates, a bill was recently defeated in Iowa’s state legislature that would have used taxpayer dollars to incentivize Iowans to kill raccoons. Under the proposed program—which was expected to cost Iowa taxpayers $860,000 each year

Some of the findings of our latest Horrible Hundred report sound like scenes from horror films. A puppy mill operator in Iowa performed do-it-yourself surgeries on puppies. A breeder in Ohio is suspected of using rusty scissors to cut the tails off puppies. A breeding facility in Oklahoma was so

In 2023, in the states, we helped to pass 153 good measures and prevented the passage of 66 bad ones. We’re on a similar course this year, and the first half of 2024 has seen a nice string of public policy successes at the state level. We’ve helped to pass bills on animals in cosmetics testing

A videographer recently traveled with the Rural Area Veterinary Services program to South Dakota to document the profound impact that bringing essential veterinary resources to underserved communities can have on the lives of people and their animals.

Dogfighting creates and perpetuates a life cycle of abuse. Dogs bred, conditioned and forced to fight one another often die of dehydration, infection, blood loss, exhaustion or shock hours or even days after the fight, and mother dogs are used as breeding machines to produce more victims for these

I recently had the opportunity to meet with our summer interns virtually to learn more about their interests in animal welfare and their future plans, and I look forward to meeting several of them in person at our Taking Action for Animals conference this week. Speaking with our interns never fails

In the U.S., at least 20 million pets live in homes experiencing poverty or in underserved areas where resources are limited or essentially nonexistent. This is why I have spoken about access to care as one of the defining animal welfare issues of our time and why we have campaigns like More Than a

Massachusetts House Bill 4915, which bans using primates, bears, big cats, giraffes and elephants in circuses, was just signed into law by Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey after it unanimously passed the House and passed the Senate on a voice vote.

Earlier this week, our responders entered the home of a man in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Not only was this man struggling with health problems, but he also had just admitted that he needed help for his rabbits—there were over a hundred of them.

Since we first started publishing our Horrible Hundred report on problem puppy mills in 2013, at least 2,500 animals have been rescued from these bad breeders, and more than 250 puppy mills from our reports have closed. This year, our Horrible Hundred report, released this past April, generated more

We’ve been working on wildlife issues since the 1960s, and we’ve been engaged in the challenges of living and interacting with urban wildlife for almost as long. John Griffin, senior director of urban wildlife programs at the Humane Society of the United States, recently co-authored an essay on