Chimps await sanctuary, while NIH still refuses to move them despite judge’s ruling kblocher@hslf.org Thu, 05/02/2024 - 16:13 By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block Despite a recent court ruling and the animal welfare benefits of sanctuary retirement, media reports indicate the National Institutes of Health is still refusing to allow 26 chimpanzees warehoused in a government laboratory in New Mexico to spend the rest of their lives at Chimp Haven. These chimps have been at this government facility since at least 2001. A recent NIH statement to the media claims that none of the 26 chimps, all previo ..read more

Congressional hostiles seek to “endanger” wildlife further still kblocher@hslf.org Wed, 05/01/2024 - 03:52 Leave it to a chamber of Congress that in too many respects has lost its way on wildlife to embrace a full-scale assault on gray wolves in the immediate aftermath of one of the most sadistic acts of cruelty ever committed against a wild animal―a female gray wolf yearling―in the nation’s history. Just two months after the despicable sequence of events in which a Wyoming man took a gray wolf he’d run down with a snowmobile to a local bar for a macabre show-and-tell game that ended in the a ..read more

Breaking: In a huge win for horses, USDA announces final rule seeking to end horse soring kblocher@hslf.org Mon, 04/29/2024 - 19:38 By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block From the perspective of public policy, there are certain cruelties that seem to hang around forever, even when their depravity is abundantly evident, defying―in a way―the political equivalent of gravity. Horse soring, which involves the very intentional infliction of pain and suffering on Tennessee walking horses and related breeds in the show world, is just that kind of cruelty. That’s why we’re delighted that the U.S. Department ..read more

USDA moves to end the cruel “Big Lick” for horses kblocher@hslf.org Mon, 04/29/2024 - 17:44 WASHINGTON (April 29, 2024)—Today, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a long-awaited final rule that would help end horse soring, an extremely cruel practice in which trainers secretly and deliberately cause intense pain to show horses to produce the “Big Lick,” an exaggerated, high-stepping gait rewarded by judges in some show circuits of Tennessee walking horses and related breeds. “Horse soring causes agony to horses, all in service of creating a spectacle in the show ring,” said Kitty Blo ..read more

HSLF rejects Kristi Noem’s cynical account of killing her family dog kblocher@hslf.org Mon, 04/29/2024 - 17:27 WASHINGTON (April 29, 2024)—South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem continues to dismiss accusations of cruelty in the wake of The Guardian’s report that her upcoming memoir includes passages telling how she ended the lives of her family’s 14-month-old puppy and a goat on their farm. Humane Society Legislative Fund president Sara Amundson responded to Governor Noem’s comments with the following statement: “Governor Kristi Noem has missed the point. The Republican base is filled with animal ..read more

Breaking: ‘Horrible Hundred’ report exposes American Kennel Club as complicit in puppy mills kblocher@hslf.org Mon, 04/29/2024 - 14:35 By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block Some of the findings of our latest Horrible Hundred report sound like scenes from horror films. A puppy mill operator in Iowa performed do-it-yourself surgeries on puppies. A breeder in Ohio is suspected of using rusty scissors to cut the tails off puppies. A breeding facility in Oklahoma was so infested with mice that some dogs could not eat their food without ingesting rodent feces. That breeder was associated with the Americ ..read more

Report of Governor Noem’s animal cruelty unsettling kblocher@hslf.org Sat, 04/27/2024 - 01:54 WASHINGTON (April 26, 2024) — Today, The Guardian reported that South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem acknowledged in her upcoming memoir how she ended the lives of her family’s 14-month-old puppy and a goat on their farm. Humane Society Legislative Fund president Sara Amundson responded to the revelations with the following statement: “There is no redeeming takeaway from a story about the ending of these animals’ lives, including a juvenile dog who was the family pet. These details from Governor Kristi ..read more

The Humane Society of the United States urges the horse racing industry to embrace protective measures for horse safety kblocher@hslf.org Sat, 04/27/2024 - 00:04 WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 26, 2024)— As racing commences at Churchill Downs ahead of the 150th Kentucky Derby, the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund call for change to address the devastating loss of horse life at each of the Triple Crown races last year and racing in general. The dark underbelly of the horse racing industry gets a harsh light shone on it, and the systemic exploitation of horses, i ..read more

Elephant’s brief escape from circus in Montana underscores the urgency to end animal acts kblocher@hslf.org Thu, 04/18/2024 - 16:41 By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block Earlier this week, an elderly captive elephant named Viola escaped from a circus in Butte, Montana. Viola belongs to Carson & Barnes Circus and was in Butte performing with Jordan World Circus. According to news reports, she wandered through traffic, in front of a casino, and paused on a residential lawn. Videos show handlers with bullhooks—a tool used to hit and inflict pain on captive elephants to intimidate them—chasing and ..read more

Our fight against expanded use of monkeys in research heats up kblocher@hslf.org Wed, 04/17/2024 - 16:29 By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block We’re pushing back hard against plans to fund expanded reliance on monkeys in experiments in the U.S., plans that would see even more of these intelligent, curious animals used in outdated and unreliable tests, often at taxpayer expense. Instead, we’ve advocated for broader investments in technologically-advanced methods that don’t use live animals and can tell us more about how the human body works—instead of attempting to translate the results of animal e ..read more