Companion Animals
Good news to start 2022: These new laws are now in place to protect animals

We begin our work in 2022 encouraged by the knowledge that a handful of significant animal protection laws at the state level have now taken effect across the country. That makes for a great start to a year in which we hope to extend the . . .
Win! Puppy mills slammed with major setbacks in 2021, spelling a brighter future for dogs

It’s no secret that puppy and kitten mills treat dog and cat mothers and fathers like moneymaking machines, bred over and over with little to no regard for their health or well-being. It is simply no way for a dog or cat to live. The . . .
Breaking: Undercover investigation exposes puppies suffering in NYC pet store

Since our undercover footage is now in the hands of New York City authorities, we can reveal what our investigations team discovered over the course of six weeks at a pet store called American Kennels on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Between October and . . .
Animals are in limbo because U.S. Congress is stalled on funding. Here’s what you can do.

Right now in Washington, D.C., a single urgent plot line threads together the fate of many animals: wild species threatened by trophy hunting or the commercial wildlife trade, the North Atlantic right whale, the nation’s wild horses, the former research chimpanzees waiting for sanctuary, the . . .
PuppyFind agrees to pay families who received sick puppies to settle lawsuit

When Jaqueline Villegas met her family’s new puppy at Denver International Airport, she knew right away the puppy was not the healthy Shar-Pei she had seen on PuppyFind.com, a huge online marketplace for puppies with over 50,000 puppies listed for sale. PuppyFind is also a . . .
Big win! 400 communities across the U.S. now stand up against puppy mills

Our campaign to stop puppy mill cruelty just reached an important milestone with the passage of the 400th local ordinance prohibiting the sale of puppy mill puppies in pet stores. And this is something to celebrate, as it shows so many people coming together to . . .
Why pet shop puppies shouldn’t be on your holiday gift lists

It is a sad truth that the cute puppies frolicking in the windows of pet shops so often come from the most dismal facilities: Puppy mills, where their mothers and fathers are treated as little more than moneymaking machines, getting bred over and over to . . .
Breaking: Rescuers arrive at house full of cats suffering from neglect

This week, our Animal Rescue and Response team was dispatched to Indiana to help rescue dozens of cats from a house in Muncie. I had the honor of being with them, on the ground, seeing the first moments these cats got the love and care . . .
‘Increasing public health threat’ from disease found in pet store puppies

By selling puppy mill dogs, some pet stores are spreading severe diseases that are dangerous to the public. We’ve been saying this for years. And now a new scientific investigation published this month by the Journal of the American Medical Association Network reinforces this fact. . . .
Why fostering an animal is especially meaningful right now

COVID-19 has made the past year and a half challenging, difficult and painful for so many individuals and institutions across the world. The animal sheltering and rescue community is no exception. Last summer, as the pandemic worsened across the U.S., shelters responded by growing programs . . .
New law increases availability of service dogs for veterans with PTSD

President Biden recently signed the Puppies Assisting Wounded Servicemembers for Veterans Therapy Act (PAWS), which increases the number of service dogs available to support veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions. We’re elated at the thought that more veterans will have access to the . . .
What the 9/11 search and rescue dogs show about our interdependence on animals

Twenty years ago, in the days after September 11, 2001, heroic first responders did the unthinkable task of going into the wreckage to search for signs of life. By their sides were the search and rescue dogs who, over the last two decades, have garnered . . .