Our Impact
More than 80,000 animal species range across Canada’s vast and varied environments. Unfortunately, many of these wild animals face threats from humans. Each year, millions are subjected to cruel practices such as the global trade in wild animal parts, trophy hunting, captivity, wildlife culls and more.
What we are working on
Companion animals are confined to puppy and kitten mills, roam the streets, or live in remote communities where their families can’t access the pet care resources they need. Tens of millions of pigs, cows, chickens and other animals are raised on factory farms and slaughtered for human consumption each year. And animals hidden in labs undergo painful, invasive and often needless testing.
Tom and Pat Leeson
Humane World for Animals
Kristo Muurimaa
Kathy Milani/The HSUS
Highlights of our work
Canada, once the largest importer of shark fins outside Asia, passed a landmark bill that included measures to prohibit the trade in shark fins nationally as well as finning in Canadian waters. Humane World for Animals campaigned for the ban for a decade.
Following a seven-year campaign by Humane World for Animals Canada, the Canadian government banned domestic trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, as well as the import of hunting trophies containing these parts. The landmark measures fulfilled a 2021 Ministerial mandate and were a critical step in protecting these iconic species.
Humane World for Animals Canada worked to help pass The Ending the Captivity of Whales and Dolphins Act or the “Free Willy Bill,” which imposed a sweeping ban on the trade, possession, capture and breeding of all cetaceans for entertainment.
After years of advocacy and campaigning, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency decided to cease the use of the poison strychnine for killing wild animals, including wolves, coyotes and black bears. Strychnine is notorious for causing some of the most agonizing symptoms of any poison, including muscular convulsions that can last up to 24 hours or longer.
Following a longstanding campaign by animal welfare, conservation and First Nations groups, the Government of British Columbia finally ended the hunting of grizzly bears throughout the province. The decision eliminates loopholes that would have allowed trophy hunting of grizzlies to continue, while respecting the will of the overwhelming majority of BC residents.
In the wake of multiple outbreaks of COVID-19 on BC fur farms—and an incident in which infectious mink escaped from a quarantined facility—the provincial government announced a phase-out of mink farming. Mink farming is exceptionally cruel, intensively confining highly intelligent, semi-aquatic wild animals and denying them their most basic of needs.
Petitions
Help animals by taking action
Protect Proposition 12
Pigs deserve to turn around! Proposition 12 provides farm animals with basic protections like this, and more.
End cruel and deadly fur farming worldwide
Farming cause immense animal suffering and appalling conditions make fur farms a breeding ground for pandemic disease spread from animals to humans.
End the cruel dog and cat meat trades in Viet Nam
Urge Viet Nam to pass explicit legislation to ban the inherently cruel and dangerous dog and cat meat trades that threaten public health and safety, and tarnish the country's global reputation
End animal neglect and suffering in marine captivity
Since 2019, 16 beluga whales and one orca whale have died at Marineland, the last remaining place in Canada holding whales in captivity.
Urge the European Union to stop importing hunting trophies
Nearly 15,000 hunting trophies of species at risk like elephants, lions, giraffes, polar bears and black rhinos were imported into the EU between 2014 and 2018.
Urge the FDA to end animal testing
It’s time for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to put an end to these outdated and flawed practices—and embrace science without suffering.
End the export of live horses for slaughter
Horses are flown by air, crammed into wooden crates without water, food or rest for the long journey only to be slaughtered upon arrival.
Sign the pledge to end trophy hunting
Every year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals are killed solely to obtain "trophies"—heads, hides or pelts and even whole animals—to stuff, skin and hang on a wall.
Urge the USDA to protect puppies
Puppies and mother dogs suffer in puppy mills. Join us in calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to enforce and raise their standards at all commercial breeding facilities.
Latest News
Michael Bernard/Humane World for Animals Canada
OTTAWA, Ontario—Humane World for Animals Canada, formerly called Humane Society International, is calling on the federal government to immediately end the inhumane importation of wild-caught macaques
MONTREAL, Quebec—Following an extended rescue operation from an allegedly neglectful breeder in the United States, 11 rescued dogs were transported to Humane World for Animals’ Canadian care and
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