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...
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...
Leading a summer camp class about beavers, Tabby Fique hoped for a glimpse of her favorite furry hydrologists. But another wildlife sighting offered an even better teachable moment. “We were looking at the pool created by the beavers, and a muskrat swam by!” recalls Fique, the land manager for the...
SALEM, Ore.—Wildlife-advocacy and animal-protection groups sent an urgent letter today calling on Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and state officials to address mink fur farms’ escalating threats to public health and wildlife. The groups are asking the governor to fast-track phasing out commercial mink fur...
Somewhere toward the end of the last ice age, we formed an alliance with wolves: Maybe the ancestors of dogs got food scraps while our own ancestors gained protection from predators and other humans. These social species eventually collaborated on a vast scale, possibly even hunting woolly mammoths...
In our recent USA Today opinion piece, we wrote about the cascade of events that sparked passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act late last year. Among other factors, the pandemic-era Netflix sensation Tiger King laid bare the cruelties of the cub petting industry so devastating to animals, making...
Update: This evening, Idaho Gov. Butch Otter announced that he had asked for -- and accepted -- the resignation of Blake Fischer. "I have high expectations and standards for every appointee in state government,” Gov. Otter said in a press release. “Every member of my administration is expected to...
Last month, Americans reacted with horror and outrage when an Idaho game commission official, Blake Fischer, circulated a photo that showed him smiling next to a family of baboons, including youngsters, he had killed on a hunting trip in Namibia. To most of us, it was unfathomable that anyone could...
A bill that would prohibit public contact with big cats like tigers, lions and leopards and ban keeping these animals as pets has been reintroduced in the U.S. Senate. The Big Cat Public Safety Act, S. 1210, would end the suffering of animals like Elsa, a tiger cub kept as a “pet” and found outdoors...
Gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have tested positive for the coronavirus in the first known cases of its transmission to non-human primates. The animals are believed to have contracted the virus from an asymptomatic zookeeper. This is distressing news on many levels. While gorillas are not...
It is a sad reality that human beings always seem to be inventing new ways to exploit, mistreat and profit from animals, but people can also help correct such harms and point the way to a better and more humane world. One of the most positive actions we can take is to educate ourselves and others...