Just as a historic freeze sent temperatures plummeting in Texas in February, overwhelming the state’s power grid, breaking pipes and leaving roads slick with ice, a strange call came into the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office near San Antonio. Someone said they heard an animal crying outside their...

BOSTON—Today the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development heard testimony on bills prohibiting the use of elephants, big cats, primates, giraffes and bears in traveling exhibits and shows (H.3245 and S.2197/S.2189). This critical, bipartisan legislation serves to...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. House of Representatives just passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263) by a vote of 278 to 134. The bill would prohibit keeping tigers, lions and other big cat species as pets, and ban direct public contact like cub petting. Sponsored and championed by Rep. Michael Quigley...

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate just passed the Big Cat Public Safety Act (H.R. 263, Senate companion bill S. 1210) by unanimous consent. This follows the bill’s passage by the U.S. House of Representatives on July 29. The legislation prohibits keeping tigers, lions and other big cat species as pets, and...

BEND, Oregon—Today at a hearing in Bend, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted unanimously to prohibit wildlife killing contests for coyotes and other species classified as unprotected mammals in the state. A coalition of 22 local and national wildlife and conservation organizations and...

The first time Tim Harrison rescued privately owned big cats was back in 1982. A public safety officer at the time, Harrison and other responders found a male lion pacing around a small enclosure, a lion cub who appeared severely ill, bears, snakes and other animals on an Ohio property. It was rare...

Danielle Tepper had always loved dolphins. When she went on vacation to Hawai'i, she knew she had to see them firsthand. Tepper—now a senior editor at the Humane Society of the United States—wanted to do it ethically, so she avoided captive dolphin attractions. Instead, she booked an excursion to...

The stories reach Amanda Arrington via text message these days: The immunocompromised hospital worker in Milwaukee who brought her spunky dog, Rusty, onto her porch to give a socially distant thanks when a Pets for Life team member dropped off dog food. The veteran with four dogs—including a...

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana’s law prohibiting direct public contact with big cats and bears goes into effect on July 1. Implementation of this law brings much needed protection for some of the animals who have been subjected to public handling and forced to live in abysmal facilities in the state...

The annual To the Rescue! gala supporting the work of the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International will take place Nov. 3, 2023, at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York City. Actress, author, producer and rabbit lover Amy Sedaris and actor and activist Justin Theroux, along...

Editor’s note: In late December of 2020, Congress approved a stimulus deal that extended the federal evictions moratorium until Jan. 31 and provided $25 billion in rental assistance. On Jan. 20, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the moratorium until at least...

WASHINGTON—This month, the Humane Society of the United States’ Pets for Life program reached a major milestone, providing its 1,000,000th service to animals. The recipient was a poodle mix named Freeda, who was helped through the program’s partner Better Together Animal Alliance in Ponderay, Idaho...

MAYSVILLE, Ken.—Earlier today, the city of Maysville became the latest Kentucky community to repeal its longstanding ban on owning certain breeds of dogs, including many pit bull-type dogs. At today’s Maysville City Commission meeting, commissioners voted unanimously to repeal the ban, which had...

In September 2020, Rick Haaland, the Pets for Life community outreach manager for the Leech Lake Tribal Police in northern Minnesota, answered a call about a large dog named Winston. The dog had gotten into an altercation with a porcupine and was covered in quills. When Haaland saw Winston at the...

NEW YORK—The Humane Society of the United States released the findings of a recent undercover investigation at Sloth Encounters in Hauppauge, New York, owned by Larry Wallach. The investigator captured disturbing footage of staff hitting sloths, stressed sloths kept in crowded conditions, sloths...

Waconia, MINNESOTA—On Aug. 10, the Humane Society of the United States attended the Carver County Fair Tiger Encounter exhibit to witness firsthand how the animals were being treated in a show that claims to raise awareness about the plight of tigers in the wild and their rapid rate to extinction...

Undercover video footage from a recent visit by the Humane Society of the United States at Bill Meadows’ Tiger Safari in Tuttle, Oklahoma, led to a U.S. Department of Agriculture citation for causing animals trauma and stress. The inspection report was made public last week. In March 2021 an HSUS...

Roadside zoo staff encouraged visitors to remove masks during animal encounters, despite COVID-19 risk to otters The HSUS went undercover at the same facility in 2014 and documented abuse of tiger cubs used for public handling Undercover footage taken at Tiger Safari in Tuttle, Okla. shows a...