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Today I’m turning the blog over to my colleague Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane Society International/Canada. For nearly two decades, Rebecca has been on the literal front lines of the fight to save animals, traveling to the ice floes of the Northwest Atlantic to document Canada’s

It is a long way from the stable, paddock and winner’s circle at Churchill Downs to the dark, dank and bloody slaughterhouses in which tens of thousands of American horses meet their sad and pitiable end each year. Yet some former racehorses do make that terrible journey, and it’s hard not to think

The fatal shooting on May 12 of a mother black bear in Newtown, Connecticut, leaving two cubs orphaned, has understandably sparked widespread outrage and grief. Local residents were familiar with the bear; they knew her as “Bobbi” and have launched Facebook pages in her honor. With her death, the

Update 6/2/2021: The split sample test has confirmed that Kentucky Derby champion Medina Spirit had betamethasone in his system, according to the New York Times. So far, the 2021 Triple Crown season has produced astonishing proof of how badly horse racing needs further regulation to ensure that

Every now and then an individual animal’s story captures worldwide attention and brings the pains and paradoxes of our relationship to other species into stark relief. We saw this with Cecil, Harambe and Lolita—animals who became famous because of their tragic fates. We saw it last month with a wild

It has been six years since the death of Cecil, a male lion who was a popular individual for wildlife viewing tourists visiting Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. The heartbreaking details of the hunt that killed Cecil made international headlines: Cecil was lured out of the protected area with

In August, reports began to surface that a lion in Zimbabwe, who was beloved by local communities, was likely lured out of Hwange National Park and allegedly killed by an American trophy hunter. His name was Mopane. For anyone who followed the story of Cecil the lion in 2015, these details created a

On December 11, we released the results of our shocking undercover investigation at two Petland locations, one in Las Vegas and another in Kennesaw, Georgia, where our investigators found several sick puppies and a dead puppy in a freezer. When we started the investigation, we were familiar with the

In late June, the body of a dead North Atlantic right whale calf was found floating off the coast of New Jersey—a victim of two boat strikes, according to a preliminary analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. While this would have been a sad story no matter what animal was

Trainers who paint horses’ legs with harsh acids and chemicals that burn through the skin, causing unspeakable pain to the animals, then add heavy shoes and tie chains on top of those wounds to intensify their suffering. Trainers who hit horses with sticks and shove electric prods in their faces to

When Brown Puppy's family brought him into the Rural Area Veterinary Services clinic in San Carlos, Arizona, he was suffering from a bad head wound. Another dog had bitten him, and Brown Puppy’s head was so swollen that he could not lift it. His eyes were shut tight. Working fast, a team of

Walking alongside a lion in South Africa or feeding a baby tiger with a milk bottle at a roadside zoo stateside as you smile into the camera might seem like a novel idea, but it never has a good outcome for the animal. And increasingly, American travelers are beginning to realize this, according to

A new United Nations report out today foretells a dire future for Planet Earth: as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of extinction, mainly due to human actions, including development, the cutting of down forests and exhaustion of natural resources, and poaching. More than a

At the Super Bowl this year, we caught a glimpse of the future of food from an unlikely source: Carl’s Jr. During the big game, the fast food chain advertised its new Beyond Burger — a patty that tastes just like meat, but is entirely plant-based. For a major fast food chain to announce a plant

At last, there is significant new progress on the welfare of chickens raised for meat. Global Animal Partnership (G.A.P.), a U.S.-based organization that develops standards for farmed animal welfare, has decided to phase in slower-growing breeds of chickens. Most of the chickens used for meat have

Imagine having to work in a roadside zoo, a pet store selling puppy mill puppies, a slaughter plant or a factory farm without ever being able to show your true feelings. Would you ever be able to walk alone among hundreds of dead animals at a wildlife killing contest, surrounded by people carrying

Tomorrow, March 11, 2023, marks the 10-year anniversary of a historic paradigm shift away from cosmetics animal testing. When the European Union and Israel became the world’s first markets to ban animal tests for cosmetics such as makeup, shampoo and cologne, the change jump-started our global

Recently, the United Nations identified some of the top drivers of zoonotic diseases, like COVID-19, that spread from animals to humans. Not surprisingly, the top three factors specified align exactly with issues the Humane Society family of organizations named in May in our own global policy plan