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Today Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation to ban wildlife killing contests in New York state. This is a wonderful moment for wildlife, as New York has been the scene of more than 20 of these senseless spectacles each year. The contests targeted a broad range of animals including coyotes, foxes, bobcats, squirrels, raccoons, crows, rabbits and woodchucks. The new law, to take effect in November 2024, will prohibit cash-for-wildlife competitions in which the objective is to slaughter animals for money and prizes.

The fight for public policy gains for animals at the federal level is not for the faint of heart nor the weak of spirit. Every day, in every congressional session, it’s an all-out battle to secure humane laws and regulations.

Many people experience their first connections with animals through relationships with dogs, cats or horses. Just as these bonds are powerful and pervasive, so must our advocacy be since companion animals face myriad injustices and difficulties in the U.S. and around the world. We’ve already detailed the incredible progress made against the dog and cat meat trades in 2023, but there is much more to say on other fronts. Here are just some of the ways we created a more humane world for companion animals in the past year.

Artificial intelligence, organ-on-chip technology and 3D bioprinting: These advancements promise to dramatically reshape our world, and they’ll play a part in making animal experiments obsolete. Sophisticated testing and research methods that use human cells or human biology-based technology will one day completely replace experiments on animals—a game-changer not just for animals, but for human health. The only question is how quickly it will happen.

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 experience the profound joy and love the bond with a pet can bring. 

As the New Year dawns, we celebrate the humane laws taking effect in 2024 that address a range of animal protection concerns.

Over the past two years, local animal rescue organizations across the country have been struggling. While we never lose sight of the incredible progress that’s been made by local shelters and rescues in curbing the intake of pets (down tens of millions in the past 50 years), recent challenges have been sobering, to say the least. According to Shelter Animals Count (of which the Humane Society of the United States was a founding member and ongoing sponsor) shelters are caring for an astounding 245,000 more companion animals than they did in 2022.

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.

Sixteen dogs are now safe and recovering well, after being saved by our team from a dog meat restaurant and slaughterhouse in Dong Nai, Viet Nam. Our rescuers found them cowering in the corners of their small wire cages. Two of them were still wearing collars, signs of their former lives as beloved pets.

Some fights for animals are a long-game—and that’s certainly been the case for everyone’s favorite long-necked animal, the giraffe. After years of advocacy, we are thrilled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing all four species of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act. This overdue proposal comes thanks to a petition and lawsuit brought by us and our allies.

During this past Election Day, which was filled with ups and downs for millions of Americans, we were watching closely for the results of Florida’s proposed Amendment 2. For months, we advocated strongly against the measure—and then it passed.

Celebrating love, gratitude and togetherness is what we enjoy most about Thanksgiving in the U.S. For those who advocate for farmed animals, the meal at the center of this holiday can be a difficult reminder of how some cultural traditions can be so difficult to change.

Earlier this month, 43 monkeys escaped Alpha Genesis, a monkey breeding facility in South Carolina that supplies animal testing labs. Years ago, Kathleen Conlee, vice president of Animal Research Issues at the Humane Society of the United States, worked at this facility, and what she saw there made her become an advocate for animals used in labs. Here she reflects on these escapees and what needs to be done to change how primates are treated once and for all.

It is astonishing that fur farms still even exist, given that they have been exposed as extremely cruel facilities that also pose terrible threats to public health. And yet, even knowing how horrific these places are, each investigation we carry out to expose and end this cruelty shocks me anew. 

Our team in Mexico recently celebrated a massive achievement for animals: The country’s constitution now enshrines animal protection as a fundamental value. This gives the government new authority to legislate on animal welfare issues and will help to bring humane education to schools across the country. In this guest blog, Anton Aguilar, executive director of Humane Society International/Mexico, discusses what this achievement shows about the power of animal advocacy and the hope for a more humane world. 

Dogs housed in enclosures with piles of feces instead of toys. Dogs jumping frantically in raised, wire cages. Dogs in dark enclosures with hardly any space to run and play. These are just a few of the conditions we documented at puppy mills that have sold to pet stores in New Jersey. Over the summer of 2024, undercover investigators from the Humane Society of the United States filmed 18 puppy breeders in the Midwest that sold to New Jersey stores.

The dog and cat meat trade worldwide continues to be one of the most pressing companion animal issues of our time. An estimated 30 million dogs and millions of cats—including stolen pets, dogs and cats taken from the streets or farmed—are trafficked and slaughtered every year. These animals suffer immensely at every stage of the trade.

The progress achieved in 2024 made our case to end the fur trade even stronger, and because of the victories we gained this year, we’ll likely see a further decline in the number of animals killed for their fur next year and for years to come.

We always say that we cannot rescue our way out of the largest, toughest issues facing animals. That’s why we also work to change the system so that puppy and kitten mills are eradicated. As we were finishing writing this blog, a win came in from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which upheld Maryland’s statewide prohibition on the sale of dogs and cats in pet stores. The Humane Society of the United States filed an amicus brief in the case, supporting the state’s argument that the law is constitutional and its goals (stopping puppy mills, protecting consumers and reducing the burden on shelters) are legitimate. This decision is a major blow to the puppy mill industry.