In 2019, Sara Shields, in southern India for workshops with Humane Society International colleagues, drove into the countryside near Bangalore to visit industrial chicken operations. At the first farm she stopped at, she saw hundreds of white-feathered birds in long open-sided barns with burlap...

Factory farm animals, locked in extreme confinement, suffer some of the worst cruelty imaginable. Egg-laying hens are confined in cages so small they can’t even flap their wings. Mother pigs in the pork industry are locked in metal “gestation crates,” which prohibit them from turning around for...

Important considerations before getting chickens as pets

Humane advocates descended upon Lawyers Mall on Valentine’s Day to “show the animals love.” The rally, organized by the Humane Society of the United States and other groups, demonstrated the strong, bipartisan public support for key animal welfare bills before the Maryland legislature this session.

The shocking number of animal cruelty cases reported every day is just the tip of the iceberg—most cases are never reported. Unlike violent crimes against people, cases of animal abuse are not compiled by state or federal agencies, making it difficult to calculate just how common they are. However...

In October, the Supreme Court heard a pork industry challenge to California’s Proposition 12, the world’s strongest law to protect farm animals. The Humane Society of the United States and its allies defended the law, which requires that mother pigs , egg-laying hens and calves raised for veal in...

A pending bill in the Maryland legislature would ban the use of cruel cages and require eggs sold in Maryland to come from cage-free hens. Now is the time to protect Maryland families and say no to animal cruelty!

See the difference between cage-free egg production and battery-cage egg production.

(Each report is available as a downloadable PDF.) Beef The Meat, Egg and Dairy Industries [PDF] Welfare of Calves in the Beef Industry [PDF] Dairy The Welfare of Cows in the Dairy Industry [PDF] Tail Docking in Dairy Cows [PDF] Veal Animal Welfare in the Veal Industry [PDF] The Welfare of...

The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund released the following statements in response to the introduction of the “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression” (EATS) Act. The EATS Act was modeled after the notorious “King amendment” which former Rep. Steve King (R-IA)...

Contents What is the Humane Society of the United States doing to help farm animals? What are some of the biggest problems farm animals face? Aren't there laws that protect farm animals from abuse? What are ag-gag bills? Don't animals have to be treated well to be productive? What can I do to help...

Cockfighting—the brutal spectacle that pits specially bred roosters against each other in a bloody fight to the death—makes the news occasionally. The cruelty behind the headlines is always the same. In November, for example, law enforcement officers in Indiana, assisted by rescuers from the Humane...

Scientists have just begun to scratch the surface when it comes to understanding bird brains. But studies have shown what backyard chicken caregivers already know: The world’s most most intensively farmed animal has remarkable cognitive abilities.