Archive for June, 2016
One year after Cecil’s killing, time to take aim at trophy hunting

David Cote, CEO of Honeywell, a company in the top tier of the Fortune 500, shot a white rhino and had parts of the prehistoric-looking animal made into two vases, an ashtray, and an ice bucket. How’s that for treating the natural world as your . . .
Breaking news: The HSUS pulls 46 dogs from dire circumstances in Arkansas

The HSUS Animal Rescue Team and local law enforcement officials descended this morning on a horrific sight on a property in Jefferson County, Arkansas – yet another animal crisis situation in the Natural State. In a darkened house, littered with filth, feces, urine, and junk, . . .
Massachusetts voters push farm animal measure to the ballot, with broad, powerful coalition

Voters in Massachusetts just took the Bay State one giant step closer to delivering a powerful punch to agribusiness interests that want to keep locking farm animals in cramped, overcrowded cages. Fueled by more than a thousand volunteer signature gatherers, The HSUS and other members . . .
Breaking news: Perdue announces major reforms for chickens; progress spotlights poultry problems, solutions

As we begin our launch of a major campaign to improve the lives of chickens raised for meat, I’m happy to report one of the biggest brand names in the world of chicken production is announcing promising reforms. The HSUS has helped set veal crates, . . .
Breaking news: Florida black bears get a 2016 stay of execution

In a stunning reversal from its decision last year to authorize the state’s first bear hunt since 1994, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted this week not to proceed with a trophy hunt in 2016, sparing as many as 400 bears and acknowledging the . . .
Congress must get on track on horse racing reform

The Triple Crown races are over for the year, but thousands of horses dash every day around the oval at tracks in 38 racing jurisdictions – Thoroughbreds, Standardbreds in harness racing, Quarter horses, and Arabians. Too many of these horses will die from catastrophic breakdowns because . . .
Breaking news: Obama signs measure to dramatically reduce animal testing

Today, it was my great honor to attend the presidential signing ceremony at the White House for a revision of TSCA, the Toxic Substances Control Act, with my colleague Sara Amundson from the Humane Society Legislative Fund. Today’s final action upgrades a 40-year-old federal law . . .
Documentary filmmaking is changing the way we view animals

I hope you’ll take three minutes right now to watch a trailer for an exciting and remarkable new film about the struggle to build a more humane food production system in the United States. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACqOmD5Mhx4 As I wrote in The Humane Economy, there are many . . .
As Yulin dog meat festival starts, poll shows overwhelming Chinese opposition to dog-meat-eating spectacle

With a gruesome dog-killing spectacle about to play out in Yulin, China, in just hours, a new poll of Chinese citizens shows no appetite for the spectacle or the idea of dog eating at all. That poll, commissioned by Humane Society International and the group Avaaz, . . .
Trophy hunters should leave Florida’s bears alone

Perhaps the biggest animal protection cause of the year in Florida is stopping the plan to renew the state’s first trophy hunting season on black bears in more than two decades. I worked with so many concerned Floridians on stopping the hunting in the early . . .
Turning anger and pain into action in wake of Orlando tragedies

The entire nation is grieving over a series of tragic incidents that have taken place in Orlando within the last week. The mass shooting on Saturday night at a gay nightclub in the city. A two-year-old baby killed by an alligator after he went missing . . .
Dogs, cats rescued from Yulin – as fight to end the spectacle gathers momentum

This week, Humane Society International’s Peter Li, working with Chinese activists, helped save 29 dogs and five cats from the butcher’s block in Yulin, China, where preparations are on for an annual dog meat festival that begins June 21. “It was a great sense of . . .