Keith Dane, senior director of equine protection for the Humane Society of the United States released this statement in response to yet another tragedy within the horse racing industry after a horse had to be euthanized, Saturday, after the final leg of the Triple Crown: "As the third race of the...

WASHINGTON—The Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, H.R. 3090, which aims to put an end to the cruel practice of horse soring, has been reintroduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with a strong bipartisan set of 185 original co-sponsors led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Steve Cohen, D...

Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a long-awaited final rule that would help end horse soring, an extremely cruel practice in which trainers secretly and deliberately cause intense pain to show horses to produce the “Big Lick,” an exaggerated, high-stepping gait rewarded by judges...

In a quiet corner of Black Beauty Ranch, on a stone plinth beneath a maple tree, there’s an oval etching of a man and a burro. The man is Cleveland Amory, author and founder of the Fund for Animals, and the burro is Friendly, one of the first animals to call the sanctuary home. The two met in 1980...

The suspect creeping up near my front fence was a tough character—broad-leafed and thick-stemmed and threatening to invade my property and swallow it whole if I didn’t act fast. There was no hesitation that summer morning as I headed to work: Off with his head! It was a decision made all too easy by...

Wherever you are in the U.S., a coyote may be taking up residence less than a mile away. If you live in the city, you’re more likely than your rural cousins to encounter raccoons. And regardless of geography, you probably share your home with dozens of species of insects and spiders. These facts...

Soring involves the intentional infliction of pain to a horse's legs or hooves in order to force the horse to perform an artificial, exaggerated gait. Caustic chemicals—blistering agents like mustard oil, diesel fuel and kerosene—are applied to the horse's limbs, causing extreme pain and suffering...

If I hadn’t been watching with my own eyes, I might not have believed it myself. But here she was, a monarch butterfly, intently probing a dead plant in the middle of a vibrant patch of flowers she all but ignored. Unaware of the scientific literature, she didn’t know that her kind wasn’t supposed...

Known for Groundhog Day and weather prediction, nearsighted groundhogs (aka woodchucks) have an important place in the ecosystem. They provide food for coyotes, foxes, weasels, badgers, hawks and eagles, and their burrows give shelter to amphibians, reptiles, rodents and foxes. Learn More About...

The house next door sits vacant, placed on the market after the last renter moved out. A succession of owners has knocked down walls, replaced carpeting and installed standard-issue appliances. Edging the exterior are shrubs from conventional landscaping palettes, including invasive species that...

Sometimes my most significant revelations are the annoying, kick-me-in-the-pants ones that follow a period of contented denial. One of those seismic shifts in thought came last year at a dinner party, when a man nearly half my age honed in on a flaw in logic I’d subconsciously buried. A plant...