By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson We are on Capitol Hill today for the swearing in of the 116 th Congress, along with Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund colleagues. We’re meeting with members of Congress, old and new, and gearing up for a new session of pushing...
An Indiana roadside zoo whose owner’s federal license was revoked for numerous violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including beating a leopard to death with a baseball bat and swinging monkeys around by their tails, has closed its doors. The animals are being moved to facilities where they will...
The cat playing with a blue buoy in the video looks adorable and will put a smile on your face, but it is important to remember that Loki is no pet. The 300-pound tiger was, however, being kept as one when he was found living in a cage inside a Houston home one year ago this month. It was a terrible...
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...
With Halloween upon us, the residents of wildlife sanctuaries and animal rehabilitation centers associated with the Humane Society of the United States and our affiliates are busy trick or treating. They are snacking on peanut butter and nuts stuffed inside pine cones, bringing down pinatas filled...
Update (1/25/2021): A Senate version of the Preventing Future Pandemics Act was introduced today by Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Cory Booker, D-N.J. The House version, introduced earlier this month, now has 50 cosponsors. With the coronavirus pandemic still raging, the urgency around preventing...
For Alex and Loki, our two resident tigers at our Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas, spring brings lots of new opportunities for fun and play. Loki, especially, loves hunkering down in the tall grass in his enclosure at the sanctuary, says Noelle Almrud, the director of Black...
What kind of world would this be if there were no regulation of the international trade in wildlife and wildlife parts? In a world in which commercial interests alone determined the fate of tigers, elephants and hundreds of other species threatened by trade, would these species really stand a chance...
This Friday, with the release of Disney’s “Black Beauty,” a new generation of moviegoers will be introduced to Anna Sewell’s beloved story of a horse who goes from a carefree life as a foal to one filled with troubles before returning home to peace and love. The book, narrated as an autobiographical...
So many of us were saddened this week to learn about the death of Beulah the elephant, who spent most of her 54 years in captivity and chains, working for a Connecticut-based traveling petting zoo. Beulah was just six years old when she was sold to the R. W. Commerford & Sons Traveling Petting Zoo...
By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson Thousands of tigers, lions, leopards and other big cats are kept in private homes and poorly run exhibits across the United States. These wild and dangerous animals are forced to spend their lives in inhumane conditions, locked up in small cages that are as far from...
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the terrible consequences of keeping live wild animals in cruel, unhealthy and unsuitable confinement in wildlife markets that slaughter and sell them for food. Bills introduced in Congress this week would position the United States as a global leader in ending...
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...