By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

It is a bloody scene at the Texas weigh-in of the “De Leon Pharmacy and Sporting Goods’ Varmint Hunt #1” on a cold January morning this year. Participants in this wildlife killing contest are unloading the bodies of bobcats, grey foxes, coyotes and raccoons from their trucks, which are expensively outfitted for the killing with raised decks, comfortable chairs and gun mounts. Sixty or so animals have been slaughtered over the contest’s 21-hour period, using assault rifles and other powerful weapons.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

An HSUS undercover investigator has recorded video footage of animals living in dismal conditions at puppy mills in the Midwest that have never or only rarely been cited for neglecting the animals in their care by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal agency whose job is to ensure these operations abide by the Animal Welfare Act.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

With a proposal to permit the killing of brown bears over bait in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has “gone rogue.” The USFWS and its parent agency, the Department of the Interior, are way over on the dark side when it comes to the killing of charismatic wildlife by America’s trophy hunters.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

We’ve never cared for the cheap, lurid television programming tied to Shark Week, preferring to join with other groups and media outlets in a celebration of this apex species found in all of the world’s oceans and even sometimes in rivers. Sharks are part of an incredibly diverse taxon, a cluster of nearly 500 related species in urgent need of our attention and energy. We must do all that we can to better protect these vitally important marine creatures, and there’s still time to make a difference. 

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Trainers who paint horses’ legs with harsh acids and chemicals that burn through the skin, causing unspeakable pain to the animals, then add heavy shoes and tie chains on top of those wounds to intensify their suffering. Trainers who hit horses with sticks and shove electric prods in their faces to get them to do what they want. Trainers who drag and force horses to stand when they are hurting too much to do so.