We’ve started a new year and a new session of the 114th Congress (which runs from January 2015 to December 2016), and despite plenty of gridlock last year, there were several important victories for animal protection. We want you, as an animal advocate, to have a simple and efficient way to determine how your federal lawmakers sided on crucial animal protection legislation.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has recently made some important advances toward protecting imperiled species from harm—including the listing of African lions under the Endangered Species Act, upgrading captive chimpanzees to an endangered listing, and closing loopholes in the domestic ivory trade to crack down on elephant poaching.

In too many communities throughout the nation, there are horrific and malicious cases of animal cruelty occurring. A horse neglected and starved to death. A cat and her kittens set on fire. Dogs forced to fight to the death in a pit.

As the year winds down to a close, I’m pleased to report that 159 new animal protection laws have been enacted this year at the state and local levels. That continues the surge in animal protection policymaking by state legislatures, and in total, it makes about 1,200 new policies in the states since 2005, across a broad range of subjects bearing upon the lives of pets, wildlife, animals in research and testing, and farm animals.

The U.S. House this morning passed the $1.1 trillion spending package for 2016, which includes a number of important provisions to prevent the opening of U.S.-based horse slaughter plants, retain Endangered Species Act provisions for gray wolves, and allow restrictions on the domestic ivory trade to protect elephants from poaching.

Here are some pretty painful examples of your government at work. Monkeys on a treadmill, sheep in microgravity, and a fight club for shrimp? All of that and more amounts to a smackdown of American taxpayers.

Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle are weighing in on the recent damning investigative report by the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General, about the Bureau of Land Management’s mismanagement of our nation’s iconic wild horses.

The 1982 global moratorium on commercial whaling has been a considerable success, with tens of thousands of whales spared over the last three decades. Still, the pro-whaling nations continue to wage a well-funded, relentless campaign to attack and undermine the moratorium, often with support from the highest government levels.

It’s hard to reconcile the overwhelming support in this country for protecting elephants from poaching and slaughter for their ivory tusks, with the idea that some politicians in Congress are working to stymie efforts to address the crisis. The Interior appropriations bill passed by the House of Representatives includes a harmful provision that would block any rulemaking by the Obama administration to crack down on the ivory trade. 

Amtrak announced today that it is expanding its Pets Aboard program and passengers will now be able to travel with small pets on select trains along the east coast and northeast corridor.