Wildlife/Marine Mammals
After a lifetime in captivity, two elderly performing bears savor retirement at Black Beauty Ranch
Two senior black bears named Tibor and Sammi have had a startling and dramatic change in fortune – for the better. They had passed their entire lives in a traveling bear show, spending days on end in cages and captive settings, shuttled from city to . . .
New documentary exposes Australia’s dirty secret – Kangaroos killed by the millions each year
The grisly and grainy images that open the jarring documentary “Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story” are not the most difficult images you’ll ever see in a feature film about animals’ suffering and abuse. That’s not because the callousness evidenced in the film is any less intense . . .
HSUS sues so that government can get it right on right whales
Today, The HSUS, along with our partners at the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, filed a legal complaint against the federal government for failing to protect North Atlantic right whales from painful and deadly entanglement in fishing gear. There are only about . . .
USDA ponders disastrous plan to allow self‑policing by licensed breeders, zoos, and researchers
After purging thousands of Animal Welfare Act inspection reports and violation notices that used to be available to the public and were searchable online, the political operatives who took over at the U.S. Department of Agriculture a year ago say they now want to turn . . .
Bare black bear gets an incredible second chance at HSUS animal care center
We take in thousands of animals at our wildlife rehabilitation facilities each year, but to me, the creature we took in a few weeks ago looked like no one who’d ever passed through our gates. At the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center in San Diego . . .
New Jersey lawmakers say ‘no’ to wild animal acts in circuses
The movement to end the use of wild animals in circuses secured its biggest win yet, with New Jersey lawmakers, in the waning days of their lame duck session, voting nearly unanimously yesterday to ban almost all wild animal acts in the Garden State. Assemblyman . . .
HSUS’s successful lawsuit to protect Great Lakes wolves may hold key to restoring protections for Yellowstone-area grizzlies
Thanks to skillful work that exposed the government’s shoddy science and its inattention to the legal standards of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA), we’ve been able to maintain federal protections for wolves in Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin by winning two key cases in a . . .
California, again, ranks as the nation’s most humane state, while the Dakotas, Mississippi at bottom of list
According to our Humane State rankings for 2017, California remains the most humane state in the nation, comfortably ahead of number-two finisher Oregon and then Massachusetts, which has held the third position since 2016 when it approved a sweeping measure to restrict factory farming and . . .
China’s ivory trade clampdown, Ringling closure, B.C. grizzly hunt ending among top wildlife victories of 2017
By Monday, China shuts down the latest tranche of its 177 ivory-carving factories and retail outlets. This is a breathtaking outcome, with the government delivering on its pledge to end its domestic ivory trade. China’s leaders, after beginning talks on the issues with their U.S. . . .
HSI deals a blow to poachers, traders by choking off the display and sale of wildlife at massive Indian fair
At the annual Sonepur fair in India, trading in wildlife became something of a global spectacle for people drawn to this sordid and sickening enterprise. Poachers and traffickers would capture animals, including elephant calves from forests in Northeast India, and sell them at a de . . .
A Humane Nation’s top 10 blogs of 2017
In 2017, there were some mean-spirited, aggressive attacks on animal welfare that stirred the conscience and passions of tens of millions of Americans – particularly the readers of A Humane Nation. These maneuvers made so many of us question the wisdom and judgment of some . . .
Federal action for animals mixed in 2017, as additional threats and opportunities loom
The HSUS pursues multi-channel reform efforts, and in 2017 we made extraordinary progress by pushing forward on a hundred fronts – in the federal courts, in protecting wolves, farm animals, and other creatures at risk of suffering or under threat; in legislatures throughout the world . . .
