The dog days of summer, where temperatures climb and people head outdoors, have nearly arrived. It is especially important to keep animals in mind during this active season—not just the companions in our homes but also the wild animals we may encounter while hiking in a national park or visiting a...

UPDATE (5/7/21): Despite overwhelming opposition from Idaho residents, professional wildlife biologists and managers and state fish and game commissioners, Gov. Brad Little signed S. 1211 into law on May 5. We urge the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to uphold its obligations to review and relist...

For many years, the modest stretch of forested land surrounding our office in Maryland has offered a refuge to wild animals whose habitat is shrinking around them. Year after year, our staff members excitedly share sightings of our wild neighbors: the mama fox who births kits in a den under our...

Wild animals face a chilling multitude of threats. At a time when so many are vulnerable to the unprecedented impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and ongoing human encroachment on shrinking habitats, imperiled animals continue to be killed for nothing more than a trophy, a prize, a pelt or a trinket. Others suffer at the hands of traffickers and breeders who want to lock them in cages for entertainment.

A key House committee has approved a package of investments in America’s infrastructure, including provisions to make U.S. roadways safer for both drivers and wildlife and to create more humane conditions for transporting horses within the country. The INVEST in America Act package, H.R. 2, passed...

You’ve seen those cute videos and heartwarming news stories: kangaroos hopping through the streets of Adelaide, Australia; penguins exploring Cape Town, South Africa; deer grazing on the lawn of an apartment complex in London; bears stretching their legs in Yosemite National Park; and coyotes...

Oregon has just made it easier for trophy hunters and trappers to go after the state’s small population of wolves. In a move strenuously opposed by scientists, environmentalists and animal protection groups, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on Friday updated its Wolf Conservation and...

A Pennsylvania court this week allowed an 18-year-old to avoid prison time for a crime that shocked Americans when a viral video of it surfaced earlier this year: in the video, the young man and his friend were seen torturing a dying deer, kicking him in the head and even ripping off his antler as...

Today, I’ve turned the blog space over to my colleague, Stephanie Boyles Griffin, Senior Scientist in the HSUS’s Wildlife Protection Department, to relay some news about an important conference concerning non-lethal wildlife management taking place in Montana this week. The gathering is focused on...

The canned hunting industry is often associated with countries like South Africa, where wealthy trophy hunters can pick out and shoot captive-bred lions in enclosures for a hefty price tag. It is, literally, the equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel, and it is a practice so shameful, many hunting...

A 12-year-old student, on his way home from school in India, is bitten by a snake. He doesn’t realize what’s happened but collapses soon after and dies later that day at a hospital. Meanwhile, in Romania, conflicts with brown bears are increasing due to habitat encroachment, improper waste...

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 animals who suffer because of animal agriculture.

Idaho is pulling ahead in a race to the bottom for how states treat wolves. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game recently released a draft wolf management plan that will guide how the state manages the wolves who live there through 2028. The plan aims to reduce Idaho’s wolf population by 60%...

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...

A poignant Washington Post story about a black bear mourning her 6-month old cub, struck dead by a vehicle in Yosemite National Park, is a reminder that even in wild spaces animals are at risk when they come into contact with humans. Since 1995, motorists have killed more than 400 bears in Yosemite...

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...

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...

Our latest investigation into a New York State wildlife killing contest gives Americans another grisly glimpse into a world of shocking animal cruelty: one where coyotes, including heavily pregnant females, were lured to their death using bait and digital calling devices, their bodies mutilated and...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency tasked with protecting American wildlife, is getting closer to allowing trophy hunters and cattle ranchers to open season on the gray wolf, one of our nation’s most iconic—as well as most persecuted—animals. USFWS director Aurelia Skipwith told...