By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

A federal appeals court has agreed that Yellowstone grizzly bears should continue to receive protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, ensuring that these iconic American carnivores will not be hunted for trophies.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Congress has begun its annual process of funding federal departments, agencies and programs, and last night two House subcommittees voted to include several crucial provisions benefiting animals in their FY2021 appropriations bills.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The U.S. House has just approved provisions that would make highways safer for wildlife to cross and create safer conditions to transport horses across the country, as part of the Moving Forward Act, a package of reforms designed to restore America’s aging infrastructure.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The killing of Cecil the lion five years ago this week by an American trophy hunter in Zimbabwe triggered worldwide outrage. Father of a pride, lured with an elephant carcass, wounded by an arrow, he suffered for hours before being killed by gunshot. As it turned out, this was a shot heard around the world, giving momentum to global demand for an end to trophy killing of animals.

In this challenging time, we want to shine a spotlight on a bipartisan group of lawmakers who led the way together during the last year in making the world a better place for animals. Humane Society Legislative Fund and Humane Society of the United States are pleased to present Senators Pat Toomey, R-Pa, and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Representatives Ted Deutch, D-Fla., and Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., with our 2019 Humane Legislators of the Year Award for their successful leadership in establishing a national anti-cruelty law, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

We’ve just learned that Donald Trump Jr.’s trophy hunting trip to Mongolia, where he hunted an argali sheep—an animal listed as "threatened" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act—cost American taxpayers a whopping $77,000.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The Trump administration has just delivered a one-two punch to Alaska’s wildlife: it has announced that it will release a final National Park Service rule allowing some of the cruelest practices for killing black bears, wolves and other wildlife on national preserve lands in Alaska; and it has announced it will propose overturning Obama-era protections for brown bears and other animals on two million acres of public lands in the state's Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted the world to acknowledge the pressing need to change our relationship with animals. From the wildlife markets implicated in the origin of the novel coronavirus to the slaughterhouses that have become clusters for its spread, we now know only too well that our uncaring attitudes and indifferent practices toward animals can have grave consequences for human health.