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Missouri’s proposal to open season on black bears has the trophy hunting industry’s fingerprints all over it. But the state’s residents now have a chance to voice their opposition to it. The Missouri Department of Conservation has just opened formal public comment on this ill-conceived plan, based

Imagine our world and its wildlife without the protections of the Endangered Species Act. Had it not been for this bedrock federal law, the beloved American bald eagle would most likely have gone the way of the dodo or the passenger pigeon. Gray wolves and grizzly bears would be no more than relics

We just filed a legal petition urging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to immediately restore Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rocky Mountains. The wolves in this region are in grave danger due to new laws passed in Idaho and Montana, and the Humane Society of the

Our agenda for the protection of wildlife is an ambitious one, focusing on the most serious threats to threatened and endangered animals in the United States and around the world. We’ve invested a lot of energy and resources in the fights to stop the trophy hunting industry in its tracks, to

Wolf restoration programs exist to bring the species back to habitats where they were wiped out. But a wolf family established by wolves previously captured in Oregon and reintroduced in Colorado has now been removed from the wild. This week, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife department announced that

Every now and then an individual animal’s story captures worldwide attention and brings the pains and paradoxes of our relationship to other species into stark relief. We saw this with Cecil, Harambe and Lolita—animals who became famous because of their tragic fates. We saw it last month with a wild

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

Update 11/19/2021: Today, the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to not allow the 2022 spring bear hunt ! The 4-4 vote means that mother bears and their dependent cubs will be protected from trophy hunting at a time when they are most vulnerable. For all of us, fall is a time for winter

After teetering on the brink of extinction, the grizzly bear population in the United States finally began to recover, thanks to the Endangered Species Act. Currently, grizzly bears are classified as “threatened” with extinction. But now that could change for some of them. This week, the U.S. Fish

Strangling neck snares are among the cruelest methods of trapping animals. These devices, made of cable wire looped through a locking device, are designed to tighten around the animal’s neck as he thrashes around and struggles to free himself, cutting his mouth and breaking his teeth in his

Since Illinois reopened its bobcat hunts in 2015, after a 40-year hiatus, trophy hunters and trappers have killed nearly 1,400 bobcats using some of the cruelest methods imaginable, like steel-jawed leghold traps. These devices are so painful that the animals sometimes gnaw through their own limbs

Those involved in trophy hunting are quick to tout its purported benefits to local communities in the nations in which their killing of rare and endangered animals takes place. But a new exposé suggests the truth about who the actual beneficiaries are, and it’s not locals. It is the concession

Over the last three decades, 80,000 mountain lions have been killed for trophies, most of them from the western and midwestern United States. This unbridled and ongoing assault, perpetrated by trophy hunters and predator-control agents and enabled by state and federal legislators, doesn't just hurt

The Trump administration has given trophy hunters the green light to commit some of the worst sort of carnage on 20 million acres of Alaska’s pristinely beautiful national preserves. Under a new rule finalized this week, trophy hunters can, starting next month, kill hibernating mother black bears

We’ve just learned that Donald Trump Jr.’s trophy hunting trip to Mongolia, where he hunted an argali sheep—an animal listed as "threatened" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act—cost American taxpayers a whopping $77,000. The revelation comes from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and

It is exactly 25 years this month since 14 wolves from Canada were brought to Yellowstone National Park, an area that had not seen a single wolf in 70 years because of trophy hunting and trapping. Almost immediately, the animals began reshaping the landscape, regenerating the park’s ecological

The federal government has fired another volley in its assault on the Endangered Species Act, and this time it’s aimed at paving the way for corporations to take over lands that could, if​ conserved and restored, help in the recovery of imperiled American wildlife. Under changes proposed in a new

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson An American trophy hunter who killed a black rhino in Namibia will receive the Trump administration’s consent to bring his spoils home. This is the third time the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a permit to import a black rhino trophy since 2017, and it

Last week, news that Donald Trump Jr. had trophy hunted an argali sheep protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act during a trip to Mongolia outraged Americans. Just as outrageous was the revelation that this hunt, which took place last summer, was partially funded by U.S. taxpayers. No American

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will allow an American trophy hunter who killed a critically endangered black rhino to import the animal’s body parts into the United States, in complete disregard for the precarious status of this species and despite overwhelming opposition from the American