By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Provisions for funding programs to protect wild horses and burros, gray wolves, animals used in research and testing, as well as elephants and lions, who are commonly the target of American trophy hunters, were among several animal welfare measures approved this week by House appropriations subcommittees, as Congress continues its annual process of funding the federal government.

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.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

In Arizona, a woman’s marmoset monkey attacked her newborn grandchild, scratching and biting the baby’s face and splitting open one nostril. In New York, a neighbor’s pet capuchin monkey bit off a 22-month-old girl’s finger when the child stuck her fingers through a backyard fence. In Tennessee, an escaped macaque monkey attacked and severely injured a woman washing a car in her driveway; the woman’s injuries required surgery and doctors told her she was lucky she wasn’t killed.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

A key House committee has approved a package of investments in America’s infrastructure, including provisions to make U.S. roadways safer for both drivers and wildlife and to create more humane conditions for transporting horses within the country.

The INVEST in America Act package, H.R. 2, passed the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Thursday by a 35 to 25 vote, and it now heads to the full House floor for consideration.