This nation cannot move fast enough to reduce the pandemic threats associated with live wildlife markets and the trade in live wildlife. That’s why we’re delighted that the House voted late yesterday in a winning bipartisan vote of 362-59 to include key elements of the Preventing Future Pandemics Act (H.R. 151) within its annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) package, which ultimately passed 316-113.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

On Sunday, Hurricane Ida slammed into the Gulf Coast, 16 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina’s landfall. Our Animal Rescue and Response team moved toward the strike zone, ready to assist animals in need. Bringing together supplies, equipment and personnel to support emergency response agencies in their relief efforts, we operate within a web of agreements that bind us to disaster response entities at all levels. It’s critical for us to be ready to go the moment authorities ask for our help.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Our nation’s assault on wildlife has been going on for centuries, with a staggering toll of animal loss that dates back to our colonial past. Over those hundreds of years, you’d be hard-pressed to identify a more vilified and persecuted species than the wolf. Today, the campaign that began with farmers and other private landowners baiting, shooting, and trapping wolves has morphed into the institutionalized trophy hunting, bounty killing and government-sponsored predator-control practices that account for their slaughter.