Wildlife

By Kathleen Conlee

Advocating on behalf of animals at the ballot box is not for the faint of heart. It requires a kind of strength, determination and stamina. Sometimes we win big—think of our California ballot measure, Proposition 12, that passed in 2018 and became the strongest law for the protection of farm animals in the U.S., which even the U.S. Supreme Court upheld—and sometimes we don’t.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Some fights for animals are a long-game—and that’s certainly been the case for everyone’s favorite long-necked animal, the giraffe. After years of advocacy, we are thrilled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed listing all four species of giraffes under the Endangered Species Act. This overdue proposal comes thanks to a petition and lawsuit brought by us and our allies.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Keeping wild animals in small, bare cages inside a retail shopping mall is absurd and abhorrently cruel. Yet this is the business model of SeaQuest, a for-profit chain of shopping mall-based wild animal petting zoos that has been plagued with controversies and cited by the U.S. Department of Agriculture more than 110 times for violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Finally, 23 chimpanzees who are owned by the U.S. government and who were previously used in painful biomedical experiments will soon be moved to Chimp Haven sanctuary where they belong, according to an announcement made today by the National Institutes of Health in a New York Times article. After years of advocating for sending these chimps to sanctuary, we are thrilled by this news.

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The flood of inspection reports detailing animal neglect and suffering at puppy mills, wild animal attractions and animal laboratories in the U.S. regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act continues to be overwhelming. Strengthening the ability of the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene in cases involving welfare violations would do a world of good for animals.

Our annual legislative scorecard is a trusted source for evaluating the animal protection commitments of elected officials at the federal level. This preview version of our 2024 Humane Scorecard allows you to determine where your federal legislators stand now on key animal protection priorities. It also gives you a chance to encourage them to strengthen their support―and their ratings―before the 118th Congress wraps up and we publish the final version in January 2025.