By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

It is the dream of a better world for animals that inspires our work, but it is action that will get us there, and that’s what made Friday’s events on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives momentous. All at once, in a single session, in one package—the America COMPETES Act (H.R. 4521)—the House voted to support half a dozen wildlife protection measures. As a result, we’re just steps away from achieving sweeping protections for hundreds of millions of animals worldwide.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Every year that passes sees hundreds of thousands of wild animals in the U.S. and around the world killed by trophy hunters, whose main motivation is to display whole animals or their body parts for bragging rights. Given all the threats facing wild animals, including habitat loss, environmental devastation and climate change, it is astounding that such a practice still exists today, which is why protecting animals from trophy hunting in the U.S. and around the world is a top priority for us.

On the surface, perhaps, the most important legislative packages approved in the U.S. Congress and signed into law this year—the American Rescue Plan Act (focused on COVID-19 relief) and the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act—may not have seemed relevant to the mission of animal protection. But the truth is that both contained sweeping gains for us, and this was no accident.

By Kitty Block and Sara Amundson

There are few among us who have not been saddened by the demoralizing sight of animals along our roads who have died in vehicle collisions. For anyone who has had this experience or had the heartbreaking misfortune to be involved in such an accident, there’s great news in the $1.3 trillion infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law a few days ago by President Biden.