HSLF News Feed

South Carolina Democratic presidential debate: where do the candidates stand on animal protection issues?

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 20:56:10 GMT

By Brad Pyle

Tonight, the Democratic Party will host a presidential debate, and we thought it timely to examine the animal protection records of candidates for president. This debate will be co-hosted by CBS News and the Congressional Black Caucus Institute in Charleston. You can watch it live on CBS or CBS.com. We want you and other supporters to know that we’re going to hold candidates at all levels accountable for their animal welfare commitments in the coming election cycle.

Photo by Mark Bacon/Alamy Stock Photo

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders has been a steady and constant supporter of animal protection during his time in Congress.

In the current session, Sanders is cosponsoring legislation to crack down on horse soring abuses, protect sharks from cruelty, and reduce wildlife trafficking.

In previous sessions, Sanders cosponsored bills to curtail abusive puppy mills and animal fighting, to restrict the private trade in big cats and primates as exotic pets, and to ban barren battery cages for egg-laying hens. He supported strong enforcement of federal animal welfare laws, and opposed the weakening of the Endangered Species Act.

He helped to lead the effort in the 111th and 112th Congresses to end the use of chimpanzees in invasive research and retire them to sanctuaries. Sanders earned a 100 on the 2019 Humane Scorecard.

Joe Biden

As Vice President, Joe Biden worked to include language in the federal budget to prohibit the USDA from inspecting horse slaughterhouses, effectively ending the practice of horse slaughter for human consumption in the United States.

Biden’s presidential platform points to ecosystem impacts and accelerating species and biodiversity loss as part of a rationale for a comprehensive climate change policy.

Biden was a strong supporter of animal protection legislation during his many years in the U.S. Senate, and consistently received high marks on the Humane Scorecard.

In his last session in Congress, Sen. Biden cosponsored measures to stop horse slaughter, upgrade the penalties for animal fighting, and ban the possession of fighting dogs and attendance at a dogfight.

Biden has led the fight on important animal protection issues. He was the co-author with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the 108th Congress on legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fishermen. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit trophy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he successfully secured passage of the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren has consistently supported animal protection legislation while serving in the U.S. Senate.

Currently, Warren is cosponsoring legislation to crack down on horse soring abuses, protect sharks from cruelty, and reduce wildlife trafficking.

In previous sessions, Warren introduced legislation to strengthen oversight of antibiotic use in animals, and co-filed an amendment to the Farm Bill to correct abuses by commodity checkoff programs such as those for beef, pork, and eggs.

Warren’s platform includes a Blue New Deal encompassing the expansion of marine protected areas and the restoration of marine ecosystems. Warren earned a 100 on the 2019 Humane Scorecard.

Pete Buttigieg

Pete Buttigieg’s rapid rise from midwestern mayor to the forefront of our national politics has presented him with little opportunity to affect or demonstrate his commitment to animal protection policy.

During his 2018 State of the City address, promisingly, Buttigieg highlighted South Bend’s Animal Care & Control successes in doubling the number of pet adoptions and reducing the euthanasia rate for cats and dogs.

Mayor Pete has two rescue dogs, Truman and Buddy, who appear frequently on social media.

Amy Klobuchar

In the current session, Senator Amy Klobuchar is cosponsoring legislation to crack down on horse soring abuses, protect sharks from cruelty, and reduce wildlife trafficking.

In the past, she cosponsored legislation which would require furs to be labeled, enabling consumers to make informed decisions. She also voted against legislation which allowed egregiously cruel and unsporting hunting methods on more than 76 million acres of National Wildlife Refuges in Alaska. Klobuchar earned a 100 on the 2019 Humane Scorecard.

Mike Bloomberg

Mike Bloomberg has been a steady advocate for animal welfare causes, both as New York City Mayor and as a philanthropist.

As Mayor from 2001 to 2013, he used his platform to champion pet adoption, reduce euthanasia, and create subsidized spay and neuter programs for low-income New Yorkers.

His campaign has released a #DogsFurMike campaign video and is running ads speaking to his animal welfare record as Mayor—claiming to have reduced euthanasia by 81 percent and increased adoptions by more than 160 percent.

Tom Steyer

Tom Steyer has made climate change the cornerstone of his philanthropic work and his political career. His presidential platform is centered around climate change and justice.

Notably, Steyer supported California Proposition 2 in 2008 and Proposition 12 in 2018, to introduce fundamental reforms concerning confinement standards for animals raised for food. The Humane Society Legislative Fund and the Humane Society of the United States spearheaded both ballot measures.

Steyer also founded NextGen America, a national voter registration and mobilization program.

Remember, we ask our supporters not only to back our lobbying efforts and ongoing campaigns but to increase their engagement as citizen advocates, and, importantly, to make their votes count for animals.

Please remember to update your voter registration, and take other steps to ensure that your voice is heard in our democracy.

You'll hear more from the Humane Society Legislative Fund about the presidential race as we get closer to Election Day 2020. Keep checking the blog for updates and more information.

Brad Pyle is political director of the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

A year after his rescue from a Houston home, Loki the tiger enjoys sanctuary and reminds us why big cats are not pets

Fri, 21 Feb 2020 19:07:54 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The cat playing with a blue buoy in the video looks adorable and will put a smile on your face, but it is important to remember that Loki is no pet. The 300-pound tiger was, however, being kept as one when he was found living in a cage inside a Houston home one year ago this month.

Photo by JP Bonnelly
Loki enjoying his habitat at Black Beauty Ranch

It was a terrible life, by any measure: the tiger had hardly any space to move inside the cage and he was sitting on rotting meat, mold, maggots and his own waste. His legs were scalded by urine. It was no way for such a regal and majestic animal to live.

Flash forward a year and Loki is now living the good life, as far as can be from the horror of that filthy cage. At the Fund for Animals’ Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch, which is now his permanent home, Loki has all of his caregivers’ attention and a spacious habitat that mimics living in the wild as closely as possible.

Loki was brought to the ranch soon after his rescue by the Houston Police Department and BARC, the city's animal service department, and he bore many scars of his past. His caregiver, Christi Gilbreth, who used positive reinforcement techniques to prepare him for any medical procedures, remembers he still acted as if he was in a cage and would not reach for treats higher than a foot or two.

“He had no idea that there was room for him to stand higher and acted as though he was limited in his space. This was likely because the cage he was found in was only waist high where he had limited movement and was never able to stand to his full height on his hind legs,” she says.

He also appeared to have had no previous exposure to a large natural setting, and it took him a bit of time to relax and enjoy swimming, climbing, playing and exploring.

Now, Loki spends his time in the tree- and grass-lined habitat playing and sleeping most of the day, as all cats do.

“He has lots of options to choose his favorite spot in the sun to sleep. Whether it’s under a tree, next to his pool, or up high on a platform, where you can normally find him,” Noelle Almrud, the director of Black Beauty Ranch, tells me.

In the habitat next door is Alex, another tiger with a sad story of his own—he was rescued along with about a dozen other wild animals after their owner abandoned them, without food or water. Tigers are solitary in the wild, and at the ranch, Loki and Alex can see each other but don’t show any interest in living in the same habitat. Our Black Beauty Ranch staff is keeping their options open, though, and Noelle tells me that if they wanted to be together, the staff would work to introduce them, but if they’re happy being apart, that’s fine too.

Black Beauty Ranch, along with the Humane Society of the United States, is a founding member of the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance, an association of more than 20 reputable sanctuaries and partner organizations working to end the exploitation of big cats like Loki and Alex in the United States. Clearly, there are far too many big cats in the hands of people who have no business keeping such large, dangerous animals with complex needs. That's why we are now working to secure passage of the Big Cat Public Safety Act in Congress, which would ban the possession of big cat species like tigers and lions by unqualified individuals and prohibit their exploitation by poorly run roadside zoos that allow public contact with big cats. Such facilities’ use of big cat cubs for the public to pet, play with and take photos with is a main driver of our country’s surplus of big cats kept in horrible captive conditions.

At Black Beauty Ranch, as Noelle reminds us, the only interaction caregivers have with the animals is for basic medical procedures and disaster preparedness and response. The animals are trained to stand on a scale so they can be weighed, or loaded into a transport crate or retreat into their dens if they need to be secured in case of bad weather or unforeseen emergency. They will also lean their hip towards the fence for annual vaccinations and the caregivers are now working on doing training for a voluntary blood draw through the tail (which can be accessed through the fence).

“This is their home and we are here to provide the highest quality of life for the rest of their life. But we do it all with the safety of the cats and staff in mind and the training is completely voluntary on the cats’ part,” Noelle says. “We never go in with them, we don’t pet them, we never try to tame them. These are wild animals, and we never underestimate their intelligence or strength.”

Please take a moment to contact your federal legislators and urge them to cosponsor the Big Cat Public Safety Act if they haven’t yet, and do all they can to get it passed

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

BREAKING NEWS: On Congress’s orders, USDA begins restoring inspection reports for puppy mills, roadside zoos and other facilities

Tue, 18 Feb 2020 20:52:23 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Three years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture inexplicably blacked out records of inspections at puppy mills, roadside zoos, facilities that do invasive research on animals, walking horse shows and other operations, leaving those who use—and potentially abuse— animals in their care with little or no accountability for their actions. Today, following a directive from Congress, the agency began restoring these records online, marking an important win for animals, for American consumers, and for animal advocates who fought long and hard for this outcome.

Photo by Meredith Lee/The HSUS

The saga began in early February 2017, shortly after the Trump administration took office. The USDA purged from its website the searchable database of Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act inspection reports and enforcement records on some 9,000 licensed facilities and operations that use animals, with no clear explanation of why it was doing so. The purge left Americans in the dark, and was clearly an attempt to keep groups like ours from holding the USDA accountable for its enforcement efforts and from getting the data we need to expose potential animal abuse at these facilities.

What the blackout did achieve was giving AWA and HPA violators the cover they wanted to continue their substandard and frequently abusive animal handling practices with no worry of public scrutiny. The HSUS has relied for years on USDA inspection data to come up with resources like our annual Horrible Hundred reports that educate consumers on problem puppy mills. Although our intrepid researchers continued to create these reports even after the blackout, by sourcing information from state inspection records or by posting partial information without specific business names, the blackout of the USDA records made their job that much harder, if not impossible.

The purge was only the beginning, however. In the months and years that followed, the USDA continued to cut down on its oversight of businesses that use animals and its enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act—a fact reported with concern in national media outlets like the Washington Post.

We brought you news about these developments as they occurred even as we kept up a multi-faceted fight to end the blackout. We filed requests for the inspection and enforcement records under the Freedom of Information Act, took the battle to court when the USDA redacted the identities of the animal abusers from the records they released, and we successfully mobilized members of Congress to join us in this important fight.

Soon after the records were taken down, the Humane Society Legislative Fund worked with a bipartisan group of 120 Representatives and Senators who wrote to the Trump administration demanding that the documents be available again. Over the years, our allies in Congress also urged the USDA, through the yearly appropriations bills, to repost these vital records.

Most importantly, in December 2019, Congress enacted a provision in the FY20 appropriations bill, issuing a clear mandate to the USDA to reinstate full, searchable public access to all AWA and HPA records without redactions. We are grateful to the 39 Senators and 188 Representatives and the appropriators—particularly House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Sanford Bishop, D-Ga.—for taking on this issue through the appropriations legislation and seeing it through to victory. The bill, signed into law on December 20th, required the agency to restore the purged records on its website within 60 days of the bill’s enactment, and continue posting such records moving forward. Today marks the end of the 60-day period.

However, the fight isn’t yet over. So far, the USDA has posted online the inspection reports it removed in February 2017 and most of those generated since, but it has not yet posted the other AWA and HPA enforcement documents that show what actions the USDA took in response to detected violations (the agency claims those will be posted within the next 60 days). In addition, from our initial review, the documents do not seem to be easily searchable, as they were before the purge.

Finally, the current database of inspection reports is much less user-friendly than the comprehensive database that was taken down in 2017, and many of the violations are simply listed as “no access,” indicating that licensees have been avoiding having non-compliances on their records by simply not opening their doors to inspectors. Also, the enforcement of these laws continues to be weak, as the Washington Post reported in August, with a 92 percent drop in enforcement cases between 2016 and 2019.

We are monitoring the USDA website closely, and we will not stop until all of the inspection records—and enforcement actions—are restored in full. We call upon the USDA to do so swiftly. Our government should not be in the business of protecting those who break violate or flaunt the law, and American taxpayers should have all the information they need to ensure that those who hurt animals do not continue to profit off them.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Poster children for the SAFE Act: Kill buyers fined again

Fri, 14 Feb 2020 20:49:16 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Some of the people and interests tied to cruelty to animals seem to come right from central casting. That’s going to help us succeed in our efforts to secure passage of the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 961/S. 2006, to permanently ban domestic horse slaughter and end the export of American horses for slaughter abroad.

iStock Photo

It’s just come to light that a USDA Administrative Law Judge not long ago served up a bit of justice to two kill buyers, the owners of Stanley Bros Farm, fining the company $4000 for multiple violations of the federal government’s Commercial Transport of Equines to Slaughter regulations. This is the latest fine imposed on the Louisiana-based company which operates a kill pen and ships horses to Mexico for slaughter, and it was imposed in the aftermath of an investigation by the group Animals’ Angels.

Every year, kill buyers like the Stanley Brothers funnel tens of thousands of American horses—working, racing, and companion horses, and even children’s ponies—into the international horse meat trade, going from auction to auction and gathering up young and healthy horses, often misrepresenting their intentions, to send them to slaughter for human consumption overseas. The Stanleys were found to have used forged health certificates, obscured the origin of the horses they shipped to Mexico for slaughter, failed to produce the necessary owner/shipper certificates, and neglected to provide time and location reports concerning the loading of the horses.

It is just these kinds of violations that led the European Union to place a moratorium on horsemeat imports from Mexico, in part to protect EU consumers from ingesting toxic drugs that such horses may have routinely consumed during their lives. Walk into any horse stable in the country, and you’ll find at least one product labeled “not intended for use on animals destined for human consumption.” Researchers with the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico found horsemeat present in raw and cooked samples sold as beef or poorly labeled in butcher shops, markets and informal selling locations such as street stalls in six Mexican cities. Their study also found high levels of clenbuterol, a veterinary drug not approved for use in animals in the food supply, in some raw meat samples.

And it’s just these kinds of violations that make a final and lasting prohibition of the slaughter of American horses for human consumption in the United States and abroad both necessary and urgent. There’s no way to resolve the many problems caused by fraudulent practices in the industry, without a final and full stop ban on a practice that is abhorrent to countless Americans. In truth, there’s no way to make the trade less cruel at all, for the slaughter of horses cannot be done humanely given their pronounced flight response and anatomy.

Thankfully, we’ve seen recent progress in the fight to end horse slaughter, as there was an encouraging hearing on the SAFE Act in the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee at the end of January. Over half the members of the U.S. House of Representatives are now cosponsors, and the Senate bill, introduced by U.S. Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also has bipartisan support.

It’s often forgotten that kill buyers are out there outbidding rescue groups and families who could offer many of these horses loving and permanent homes. Just last fall, a six year old quarter horse saved from a kill pen and his 13 year old owner placed among the top twenty contestants in the single largest breed show in the world. This was so heartening to us.

We’ve said it for a long time: horse slaughter is a grim and ugly business, and it’s beneath the status of a great nation to let it carry on in light of all we’ve seen and all that Americans believe. We don’t eat horses, and more than 80 percent of Americans don’t approve of their being hauled over long distances to Canada or Mexico, to be inhumanely killed for an overseas market in their flesh.

The Stanleys aren’t the only bad faith actors in the horsemeat trade; they’re simply the ones in the news cycle today. But their way of doing business says all that we need to know about the transport and killing of horses for foreign meat exports. It’s cruel to the horses, it’s potentially unsafe for consumers, and it’s a waste of U.S. taxpayer dollars. It’s time to put a stop to the slaughter of American horses for human consumption and pass the SAFE Act.

Please take a moment to contact your federal legislators and urge them to cosponsor the SAFE Act if they haven’t yet, and do all they can to get it passed!

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

An undercover investigation at the Safari Club International convention reveals the sale of potentially illegal wildlife products, captive-bred lion hunts and displays of thousands of products made from giraffes, elephants, stingrays, kangaroos and more

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 07:04:32 -0600

An undercover investigation last week by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International exposed exhibitors peddling wild animal products at the Safari Club International convention in Reno, Nevada. Items found for sale include belts and boots made of elephants, hippos and stingrays, which likely violate Nevada’s wildlife trafficking law.

At SCI convention, trophy hunters rub shoulders with Donald Trump Jr. and USFWS director; undercover investigation reveals potentially illegal sales of elephant, stingray and hippo skins

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 13:01:42 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

At the Safari Club International’s annual convention each year, wealth, privilege and power come together with a revolting goal: mowing down the world’s rarest and most beloved wildlife. This year’s event in Reno was no different. Trophy hunters heard speeches from guest of honor Donald Trump Jr. and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Director Aurelia Skipwith, shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to kill endangered rhinos, lions and polar bears, and kicked back to the music of the Beach Boys.

Photo by Vanessa Mignon

But, as our undercover investigators who were on site discovered, there were potentially illegal goings-on at the event as well. Exhibitors peddled boots and belts made with elephant, hippo and stingray skins in what appears to be a violation of Nevada’s law on wildlife trafficking. The state forbids trade in the body parts and products of these endangered and threatened animals.

Customers could also get accessories made to order with the animal skins, some dyed in garish colors. The going rate for giraffe skin boots was nearly $1,400 and kangaroo skin boots were nearly $1,100.

It wasn’t just dead animal parts on sale. The lives of 860 animals were auctioned off at the four-day event. As you can see in our undercover footage, vendors glibly offered canned lion hunts, where trophy hunters can pick out and kill defenseless animals bred in captivity with nowhere to run. Also on offer was a $6,000 hunt for any six animals that a customer can choose to kill in South Africa, including zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, impalas, hartebeest, gemsbok, nyala and waterbuck. A polar bear hunt in Canada was offered for $35,000.

Also on offer: a critically endangered black rhino hunt for $350,000, and an Asiatic black bear hunt for $15,000 in Russia, among others. There even was a “Trump special” for $25,000 to kill buffalo, sable, roan and crocodiles. An outfitter peddling a giraffe hunt told our investigator the hunt costs “only” $1,200 because they have “too many giraffes” and need to “get rid of the animals.” This at a time when the U.S. is considering listing the giraffe under the Endangered Species Act and two giraffe subspecies were recently listed as critically endangered under the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

By the time the convention wrapped up on Saturday, two winners had paid a total of $340,000 for a “dream hunt” on a luxury yacht in Alaska with Trump Jr. to kill back-tailed deer and sea ducks.

The HSUS and HSI send undercover investigators to the convention each year so that we can shine a global spotlight on this grisly world. As you can see from our video footage, this is not an event most people would want to frequent. In addition to the vendors carrying out a callous trade in animal lives, everywhere you look are the stuffed carcasses of lions, Cape buffalo, bears, wolves, mountain lions and leopards. This year’s displays included an ibex mountain goat killed by Trump, Jr. On the walls are portraits of hunters grinning alongside their kills or posing proudly holding open the mouths of the dead animals.

Many of these species on offer for the killing already face multiple threats from poachers or are falling victim to climate change and habitat loss. But for the SCI and its members, the rarer the animals are, the greater the thrill of killing them.

Fortunately, the tide is turning, as Americans lose their patience with the havoc trophy hunters wreak on our planet. Earlier this week we announced that in response to a lawsuit brought by the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International, the Trump administration shut down a sham trophy hunters’ panel that was advising the government on wildlife trade policy. Last month, a Canadian chapter of SCI was forced to shut down its auction for an elephant hunt in Botswana—the first since the country reopened trophy hunting elephants last year. Attendance at the SCI convention itself is dropping each year. And increasingly, Americans and people the world over are sharing their disgust of trophy hunters and their exploits on social media.

We look forward to the day when we won’t have to send our investigators to the SCI convention, because there won’t be one. But until that day comes, our fight to stop industry groups like the SCI will continue. American trophy hunters kill more endangered and threatened animals around the globe than hunters anywhere in the world, and we will hold them to account. We are pushing for Congress to pass two bills, the CECIL Act and ProTECT Act, that would rein in trophy imports of such species from overseas. No one needs to decorate their walls with the heads and hides of endangered or other at-risk animals, and it’s time we, as a nation, stop this unnecessary killing for good.

Read the full investigative report here.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Breaking news: Lawsuit prompts shutdown of trophy hunters’ panel in Trump administration

Mon, 10 Feb 2020 13:39:56 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

A panel of trophy hunters appointed by the Trump administration to advise the federal government on international wildlife trade policy has bitten the dust.

Photo courtesy of iStock.com

Following a lawsuit filed by a coalition that included Humane Society International and the Humane Society of the United States, the Department of the Interior last week disbanded the International Wildlife Conservation Council, a committee that in every sense embodied the “fox in the henhouse” idiom.

The IWCC was appointed in 2017 by then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a trophy hunter himself. It was made up almost entirely of trophy hunters and gun industry lobbyists from groups like the NRA and Safari Club International who were charged with exploring the “benefits” international trophy hunting produces for foreign wildlife and habitat conservation.

In the two years that the IWCC was in existence, at a cost of $250,000 per year to taxpayers, the United States, not surprisingly, saw some of the worst policy decisions ever taken on endangered and threatened wildlife, most of them coming from the Department of the Interior and one of its agencies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

In 2018 and 2019, for example, IWCC members pressed for the lifting of prohibitions on imports of elephant and lion trophies from Tanzania, prohibited under the Obama administration, and in 2019, the USFWS did indeed issue an import permit for a lion trophy from Tanzania, the first since the species was listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2016. The Trump administration also issued permits to three Americans to import trophies of endangered black rhinos they had killed.

The case our coalition brought challenged the IWCC’s legality because its members had a clear bias and were not acting in the public interest by promoting the trophy hunting of threatened and endangered species like elephants, lions, leopards and rhinos. Moreover, the panel unlawfully met behind closed doors, shutting authentic conservationists and other stakeholders out of important discussions and giving self-interested IWCC panel members all the freedom they needed to grease the wheels for their own ends.

There’s a lesson to be learned from the history of this terrible panel, rightly disbanded in response to our actions and complaints. Trophy hunting is on the decline around the world, by many indications, but the lobbies that support this gruesome pastime are forever on the lookout for opportunities to influence those in power and bring back bad practices. And we must engage them each and every time to stop them in their tracks.

Fortunately, Congress is also moving against trophy hunting. The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies (CECIL) Act, H.R. 2245, introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., would substantially restrict the import and export of trophies of any species listed or proposed to be listed under the Endangered Species Act and prohibit the import of elephant and lion trophies from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania. The Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies (ProTECT) Act, H.R. 4804, introduced by Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Pete King, R-N.Y., would prohibit trophy hunting of ESA-listed species in the United States and the import of any trophy of a species listed under the ESA.

American trophy hunters kill more endangered and threatened animals around the world than hunters from any other country. That’s why the Humane Society Legislative Fund lobbied key congressional members and encouraged our constituents to weigh in against the continuation of the flawed IWCC. Now we’re pushing for the CECIL Act and the ProTECT Act to become law, and you can help by calling your members of Congress. Ask them to support these important bills so the world’s wildlife, already under threat because of climate change, habitat degradation and poaching, gets a reprieve from the completely unnecessary threat of trophy hunting.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Miami seizure highlights need to pass federal ban on shark fin trade

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 20:59:52 GMT

The news out of Florida was shocking: earlier this week, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials confiscated 1400 pounds of detached shark fins valued at nearly $1 million at PortMiami. Investigators found severed fins stashed out of sight in 18 boxes in a ship docked at the port.

The shipment violated the Lacey Act, which prohibits trade in fish, wildlife and plants in violation of U.S. and foreign law. Some of the fins seized also came from species protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

This episode underscores the urgency for passage of the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, S. 877, which would end all commercial trade in the United States of shark fins and products containing shark fins. There is already clear momentum behind the bill, with the U.S. House counterpart passing overwhelmingly by a vote of 310 to 107 in November. The PortMiami seizure is also Exhibit A for passage of H 401/S 680, a state bill to prohibit the shark fin trade in Florida, which has cleared one committee in the Florida Senate, and two in the state House.

The shipment, which originated in South America and was likely headed to Asia, also validates the findings of a new report published by NRDC, which casts the United States as an important transit hub for shark fin shipments between these two continents. There are nations in Central America that ship as much as one-third to one-half of all their shark fins through U.S. ports. Many of these shipments may be in violation of U.S. law, international agreements or both, creating an urgent need for increased monitoring of in-transit shark fin shipments. Despite both U.S. and international laws that regulate the shark fin trade, shark fin shipments passing through this country are only rarely inspected to ensure that these transshipments comply with international regulations.

By allowing these fins—including the fins of protected shark species—to transit its borders, the United States is facilitating unrestricted trade in shark fins from Latin America, which is one of the world’s most significant shark killing zones.

Americans overwhelmingly oppose this brutal trade, in which fins from as many as 73 million sharks are traded globally each year. Worse, the trade—driven by market demand for shark fin soup—is pushing many shark species toward extinction.

There is certainly no case to be made for the shark fin trade as necessary and lucrative. An Oceana report, for example, highlights how shark-related diving and tourism activities generated 200 times more revenue in Florida than the fin trade in the entire U.S. In 2016, shark-related diving in Florida produced over $221 million in revenues and more than 3,700 jobs.

State level bans are critical, and in January, New Jersey became the most recent of 14 states to pass legislation to limit or ban the sale of shark fins. Acting under one of these statutes, authorities in Texas filed charges for the illegal selling of shark fins and shark fin products at various restaurants and markets.

The shark fin trade represents a classic battle for organizations like ours, which were founded precisely to bring the fight to large-scale cruelties, wherever they occur, however they occur, and whoever may be responsible for them. We’re involved in worldwide efforts to save sharks, with all of the tools we have and with all of the resources we can muster. It’s especially important that we secure the most strenuous protection possible and rein in trade in shark fins from endangered and threatened species within our borders.

Please take a moment to contact your two U.S. Senators and ask them to cosponsor the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act if they haven’t yet, and do all they can to get it passed!

Breaking news: U.S. House approves bill to pair veterans with service dogs

Wed, 05 Feb 2020 17:58:55 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The U.S. House has just approved a bill that would expand opportunities for veterans to get involved with training and adopting service dogs, leading to better lives for both the animals and the people helping them.

Photo by Mark Bacon/Alamy Stock Photo

The PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act, H.R. 4305, will create a pilot program at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to help individuals with post-deployment mental health disorders by pairing them with dogs to train as service animals. The bill directs the VA to provide grants to nonprofit entities that teach veterans how to train service dogs. Once the program is completed, veterans can, if they wish, adopt their dogs for ongoing therapy.

The measure passed the House by a voice vote. The issue has such strong bipartisan support, the bill arrived on the House floor with 324 cosponsors from both sides of the aisle.

There are few who would deny that we owe a special debt of gratitude to those men and women who have served in our nation’s armed forces, especially in combat. This is particularly true given our current understanding of the significant emotional challenges associated with conflict and its aftermath. An alarming number of veterans and current service members face an invisible and formidable enemy in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other mental health challenges.

The legislation relies upon some of the best available mental health interventions available. Working with service dogs has been shown to enhance mental health. Among other benefits, it helps participants focus attention and energy toward training the dog. Moreover, the positive emotions they experience when the dogs perform their tasks well can produce demonstrable social and psychological benefits, too.

Therapy centered on productive and satisfying employment has also been shown to successfully lower depression, anxiety, anger, sleep disturbances and alcohol and substance abuse, as well as enhance interpersonal relationships.

Once the service dogs are trained, they can be invaluable companions for veterans. They often alert their owners to PTSD triggers, such as crowded areas or unanticipated risks. They can also help to reduce their handlers’ anxiety by providing security and a calming effect. And any dog breed is fit to serve, including Labradors, golden retrievers, mixed breeds and animals rescued from shelters.

“Today’s passage of the PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act is an important first step in getting veterans access to life saving and life changing solutions,” said Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio. “I’ve seen first-hand how these policies have prevented suicide, improved relationships, and given veterans their lives back. Now, we’ll send this bill to the Senate, and then to the President’s desk so that we can get those who have served the care they deserve.”

No society can afford to neglect the post-deployment well-being of its service members. Our thanks to Reps. Stivers, Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., John Rutherford, R-Fla., Mikie Sherrill, D-N.J., Michael Walz, R-Fla., Gil Cisneros, D-Calif., Neal Dunn, R-Fla., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., for recognizing the social, psychological and medical benefits that the human-animal bond provides to improve the health and well-being of veterans, and for their leadership in bringing this measure so far in such a short time. We now urge the Senate to swiftly act upon a companion bill, the K9s for Veterans Therapy Act, S. 2948, sponsored by Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. This well-crafted, urgently needed legislation is worthy of every American’s support.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

State of the animals under the Trump administration: a year of highs and lows

Tue, 04 Feb 2020 17:17:44 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

This past year has been a mixed one for animals under President Donald Trump. On the one hand we’ve seen federal agencies take steps to improve the fortunes of animals used in testing and the wild horses and burros on our public ranges, and also to end breed discrimination of companion animals. On the other hand, we’ve also seen some shocking anti-animal actions, including a conspicuous decline in the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, a continued lack of transparency over recorded violations of these laws, and the dismantling of the Endangered Species Act, the bedrock U.S. law protecting imperiled species across the globe.

Photo by Nathan Hobbs/iStock.com

Today, as President Trump prepares to deliver his third State of the Union address, here’s a brief look at how his administration dealt with issues of importance to us at the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Among the positive actions taken for animals:

The Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to end all tests on mammals, including dogs, mice, and rabbits, by 2035. The agency will devote $4.25 million to the development of non-animal testing technologies at five universities.
The Bureau of Land Management agreed in 2019 to return to a 2014 policy designed to prevent horses from being funneled to slaughter by allowing individuals and organizations to buy only four wild horses over a six-month period. In 2018, the Trump administration had moved to allow 25 horses to be purchased at a time, with no time limit between purchases, making the animals vulnerable to mass purchases by “kill buyers.”
The Department of Transportation issued a proposed rule prohibiting airlines from banning certain breeds of service dogs, such as pit bull-type dogs, and prohibiting exotic animals like capuchin monkeys from flying as service animals—a designation that could lead to health, safety and welfare risks.

Among the damaging actions taken by the administration over the past year:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture cut back drastically on the number of Animal Welfare Act citations and enforcement actions—actions that could negatively impact animals trapped in enterprises like puppy mills and roadside zoos.
The USDA finalized a federal rule to do away with slaughter speed limits at pig slaughter facilities, creating an animal welfare, worker and food safety nightmare.
The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service finalized rules substantially weakening Endangered Species Act regulations. One of these rules creates additional roadblocks to securing comprehensive protections for threatened species and makes it easier to delist species from the ESA.
The Fish and Wildlife Service announced its plan to issue a rule to remove ESA protections for gray wolves.
The Fish and Wildlife Service issued its third critically endangered black rhino trophy import permit since 2017, to a hunter who paid $400,000 to kill the animal in Namibia.
The National Institutes of Health announced that it will not send chimpanzees, now held at the Alamogordo primate laboratory in New Mexico, to retirement at the federal sanctuary Chimp Haven, despite an express Congressional directive.

Looking ahead, we urge the Trump administration to take the following actions in 2020:

Issue a final rule from the USDA to strengthen licensing and basic care requirements at puppy mills, roadside zoos and other facilities under the Animal Welfare Act.
Significantly increase the use of humane population growth suppression toolsby the Bureau of Land Management to manage wild horse and burro populations on public rangelands, and eliminate research into sterilization as a management technique.
Issue a proposed rule from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to mitigate the harm being caused to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, including measures to reduce deadly entanglements in vertical fishing lines.
Prioritize the relocation of chimpanzees owned and supported by the National Institutes of Health to the national sanctuary, Chimp Haven. NIH should also prioritize replacing animals in harmful research with approaches that represent the best available science and prevent the suffering of millions of animals in laboratories each year.
Improve enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, the Horse Protection Act and federal animal fighting laws, cracking down on puppy millers, horse sorers and cockfighters, and reinstate the final HPA rule to end horse soring that was withdrawn at the beginning of the Trump administration. Following a mandate in the FY20 appropriations bill, the USDA must reinstate all AWA/HPA inspection and enforcement records it took down in 2017 and resume posting them without redacting the identities of violators.
Continue to provide necessary protections for endangered and threatened species, including rejecting permit applications for trophies of species like rhinos, elephants and lions, and ensuring that egregious and inhumane hunting methods are not permitted on federal lands.

Animal protection ought not be a partisan issue. Even in a highly polarized Congress, we saw major progress for animals last year with the passage of the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act and other milestones such as the House approving the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act and the Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act. Most Americans feel a deep compassion for animals and moving forward we urge President Trump to put the policies and resources of this administration squarely behind this very American value.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Are horses about to be removed from European and Asian dinner plates? U.S. House has first hearing in over a decade on ending horse slaughter

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 19:50:00 GMT

The killing of American horses for food has forever been unpalatable to the vast majority of citizens of the United States, and that’s one of the reasons that Humane Society Legislative Fund and the Humane Society of the United States have made the fight to halt this practice a priority over the last decade. Horse slaughter is more than just offensive to our collective sensibilities, however. It’s a cruel betrayal of horses, one that produces terrible suffering and misery for them, and it’s the subject of an important legislative debate unfolding in the U.S. Congress this session.

iStock Photo

Today, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health held a hearing on the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 961, to permanently ban domestic horse slaughter in the United States as well as the transport of horses abroad for slaughter, along with a number of other bills focused on safety and transparency in the production and use of food and drugs in the United States.

Each year tens of thousands of American horses are hauled to Canada or Mexico, where they are butchered for their meat that’s then shipped overseas. The suffering begins the moment these horses enter the slaughter pipeline. After being acquired by kill buyers, who often misrepresent their intentions bidding against horse rescuers at auctions, they are loaded into cramped livestock trailers with other horses and spend many hours without food and water. These frightened animals often panic and fight in close quarters, injuring themselves and each other in transport and sometimes dying en route. And at the slaughter plant, horses rarely experience quick, painless deaths.

In addition to our humanitarian objections, we have long maintained that horse meat is unsafe for human consumption. Unlike animals raised for food, the vast majority of horses sent to slaughter will have ingested, or been treated or injected with, multiple chemical substances known to be dangerous to humans, untested on humans, or specifically prohibited for use in domestic animals destined for the human food supply.

For too long, horse slaughter has provided a quick fix outlet for individuals and industries seeking to discard healthy, sound horses deemed to no longer have value. But we can’t let horse owners, breeders, trainers, and other stakeholders off so easy. They have—we all have—a deep responsibility to horses, and these magnificent animals deserve much better.

In an era of divisive politics and culture wars, there is something oddly reassuring about the horse slaughter issue precisely because so many different stakeholders agree with the central premise here. Horses do deserve better, and our view is shared by the Homes for Horses Coalition, The Jockey Club, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), the ASPCA, the Animal Welfare Institute, Return to Freedom, the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association (HSVMA), and many other organizations.

Not only do all our organizations support the SAFE Act, introduced by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Vern Buchanan (R-Fl.), but this legislation also has the cosponsorship of over half the House of Representatives at present, and growing support in the Senate, where it has been introduced by Sens. Menendez (D-N.J.) and Graham (R-S.C.). When this lifesaving measure passes, as it surely will one day, it’ll be because of that broad, bipartisan base that stands behind it. But it’ll also be because of the stalwart backing that you and other supporters of our work have demonstrated for the fundamental principles of kindness, compassion and decency, timeless values that are the heart of our humane enterprise.

Please take a moment to contact your federal legislators and urge them to cosponsor the SAFE Act if they haven’t yet, and do all they can to get it passed!

Breaking news: Key House committee votes to reverse Trump administration’s harmful changes to Endangered Species Act

Wed, 29 Jan 2020 18:40:14 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Last year, the Trump administration finalized regulations that gutted the Endangered Species Act, making it harder to grant and maintain federal protections for species that are fighting for survival. Today, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee voted to reverse those dangerous changes by approving the Protect America’s Wildlife and Fish in Need of Conservation Act (the PAW and FIN Conservation Act), H.R. 4348.

Photo courtesy of iStock.com

The measure would nullify regulations that strip threatened species of vital safeguards, create hurdles to list species threatened by climate change, weaken protection of critical habitat, and make it easier for federal agencies to ignore the impact of government actions on listed species, including African lions, grizzly bears and elephants. The regulations, finalized last August, also directed regulators to assess economic impacts when making decisions about whether species should be listed, tipping the scales against animals who happen to live in areas targeted by business operations like mining, oil drilling or development.

These are unacceptable changes, especially at a time when animals across the globe face great challenges to their survival due to poaching, habitat loss, the climate crisis and trophy hunting. The ESA has saved more than 99 percent of listed species from going extinct, and now is the time to enhance, not dismantle, it. Soon after they were announced, the rules were challenged in court by the attorneys general of 17 states and by a slew of environmental and animal protection organizations, including the HSUS. We are pleased to see Congress move decisively to throw these dangerous rules out.

The committee also marked up several other important pieces of wildlife conservation legislation today, including bills concerning the establishment of wildlife corridors to address disjointed habitats and the development of integrated national climate change resiliency strategies. These bills include:

The Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act, H.R. 2795, to establish a National Wildlife Corridors Program for federal public lands as well as authorize funding for states, tribes and other entities to pursue comprehensive corridor network projects on non-federal lands to boost biodiversity, protect ecosystems, and help safeguard iconic species like the Florida panther and bighorn sheep.

The Tribal Wildlife Corridors Act, H.R. 5179, to support efforts by Native American tribes to establish a Tribal Wildlife Corridors System on tribal lands.

The Safeguarding America’s Future and Environment (SAFE) Act, H.R. 2748, to require federal agencies to work together and in conjunction with state, tribal and local governments to identify and prioritize specific conservation and management strategies responsive to the challenges of extreme weather and climate change.

Committee members also marked up a bill to establish the Western Riverside County National Wildlife Refuge in California that would provide habitat for 146 species of plants and animals.

We are grateful to House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz. for moving these five bills forward, and to all of the members who voted in favor of them. We look forward to all of them moving soon to debate and vote on the full House floor.

A United Nations report last year warned that one million plant and animal species are on the verge of extinction, with alarming implications for human survival. By passing these bills, we can ensure that our nation is doing its part to help conserve global and American wildlife. But before they go to the House floor for a vote, we need to ensure that all five have a high cosponsor count. Please contact your Representative in Congress today and urge them to cosponsor these important bills.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

With racehorses dying on the track, and racing in turmoil, a Congressional committee holds hearing on industry reform

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 18:07:03 GMT

Horseracing is at a crossroads, as today‘s congressional hearing on the future of horseracing made plain. An epidemic of racetrack deaths has highlighted a serious problem in the sport: the abuse of medications that place animals’ lives at risk by masking their injuries in order to keep them going on race day. Today, we hope, marks the start of a new era of heightened sensibility and enhanced protection for horses.

Photo courtesy of marlenka/istock.com

We’ve been leading the fight for urgent reforms within American racing for a long time, pushing for federal legislation to protect the nation’s racehorses from irresponsible doping and medication. The bill we’re supporting, the Horseracing Integrity Act H.R.1754/S.1820, would replace the outdated state-by-state drug and medication rules, ban race day medication, and empower the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency—a non-profit organization that runs anti-doping programs for Olympics and Pan American sport in the U.S.—to establish an authority that will ensure a nationally uniform set of rules on the use of medication in horseracing.

At today’s hearing before the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce/Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection, we witnessed strong and broad support from leaders in the racing industry, two U.S. Congressmen, and Hall of Fame jockey, Chris McCarron, who all testified on behalf of the bill.

Joe DeFrancis, chair of the Humane Society of the United States National Horseracing Advisory Council and former CEO and controlling shareholder of the Maryland Jockey Club, testified that, “When baseball had its problems with performance-enhancing drugs, the players who cheated chose to put their bodies at risk in pursuit of the win-at-all-costs mentality. Racehorses have no say. Trainers determine what drugs are used, and when. If rogue trainers want to cheat, there is little in the current system to catch them, or more importantly, to deter them.”

McCarron, a founding member of the HSUS National Horseracing Advisory Council, told legislators that, “on average, two jockeys die each year due to training or racing accidents and two more are left paralyzed. The vast majority of these tragedies occur due to a horse’s breaking down. Very often these horses are racing with pre-existing conditions that have been masked by medication.”

Congressmen Andy Barr, R-Ky., and Paul Tonko, D-N.Y.—the bill’s lead sponsors whose districts each include major horseracing venues—are motivated by a deep desire to protect the lives of both horses and jockeys.

“This hearing is an important step in furthering the conversation around the need for transparency and standardization in horseracing,” said Congressman Barr, who represents Lexington, Kentucky, a racing stronghold. “As the Representative of the Horse Capital of the World, I will continue to fight for the future of horseracing and build on this momentum to bring this vital legislation to the House floor for a vote.”

“Congressman Barr and I have worked for years to strengthen this bill,” said Rep Tonko, whose district includes the storied race track at Saratoga Springs. “We broke new ground in recent weeks by securing the support of more than half of our colleagues in the House of Representatives. News that the Subcommittee is moving forward with a legislative hearing dedicated to the bill reflects the momentum we have built and the unprecedented support we are now seeing in the halls of Congress and throughout the horseracing world,” he stated.

Today’s hearing was a key milestone in the campaign to secure better treatment for racing horses, but to get the measure across the finish line will take a lot more effort. We’ll continue to press Congress to bring the bill to the floor soon and to work with racing industry leaders to press for immediate and meaningful safety changes in the sport. And you, as advocates who care about protecting horses, can do the same. Please contact your federal legislators to urge them to cosponsor the Horseracing Integrity Act if they haven’t yet, and do all they can to enact this bill swiftly.

Did your Members of Congress make the grade? Hot off the press – final 2019 Humane Scorecard

Tue, 28 Jan 2020 13:33:37 GMT

The final 2019 Humane Scorecard is now online, and we invite you to check it out and see how your federal legislators stood on a range of key issues last year. Please also share this scorecard with family, friends, and fellow advocates and help spread the word!

iStock Photo

To recap, despite the highly polarized atmosphere in Washington, D.C., we achieved some crucial bipartisan victories for animals during the first session of the 116th Congress. Here are some highlights of 2019:

ANIMAL CRUELTY
The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, signed into law in November following unanimous approval in the Senate and House, builds on the 2010 federal “crush video” law by prohibiting extreme animal cruelty that occurs on federal property or affects interstate commerce regardless of whether a video is created.

WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING WHISTLEBLOWERS
The Rescuing Animals With Rewards (RAWR) Act, signed into law in December as part of the fiscal year 2020 appropriations omnibus, authorizes the U.S. Department of State to combat international crime networks, including known terrorist organizations, involved in wildlife trafficking.

HORSE SORING
The Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act won a sweeping 333-96 bipartisan House vote in July, and its companion bill now has over half the Senate as co-sponsors. The act would crack down on the cruel practice of horse soring by ending the failed system of industry self-policing, banning devices integral to soring and strengthening penalties.

APPROPRIATIONS
We secured many victories for animals in the FY19 omnibus bill (P.L. 116-6) signed into law in February. Even more pro-animal provisions are contained in the FY20 omnibus bills (P.L. 116-93 and P.L. 116-94) signed into law in December, including:

Wild horses and burros: Provides an additional $21 million to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, funds that can only be accessed after the agency submits a comprehensive nonlethal plan based on scientifically sound, safe and humane fertility control strategies, excluding surgical sterilization, along with an increased focus on adoptions and relocation of animals to larger pastures instead of perpetually warehousing them in holding pens. Additionally, the law prohibits the BLM and, for the first time ever, the U.S. Forest Service from killing healthy horses or burros or sending them to slaughter.
USDA records: Directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promptly resume online posting of all inspection reports and enforcement records under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA) in their entirety and without redactions that obscure the identities of puppy mills, roadside zoos, horse trainers and other businesses cited for violations.
Pets and domestic violence: Provides $2 million for a new grant program authorized by the 2018 farm bill, based on the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, to help provide emergency and transitional shelter options for domestic violence survivors with companion animals, and directs several agencies to work together to implement this program in FY20.
Horse slaughter: Prohibits USDA expenditures on horse slaughter inspections, effectively preventing horse slaughter plants from operating in the U.S. during FY20.
AWA enforcement: Requires that USDA inspectors document every observed violation, to reverse concealment practices that the agency has promoted during the past few years, and provides $31.3 million for AWA enforcement.
Horse soring: Provides $1 million (a nearly 42% increase) for USDA enforcement of the HPA to crack down on the cruel practice of soring Tennessee walking horses and related breeds.
Animal research and testing: Provides a $40 million increase to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences to help speed the transition to nonanimal alternative methods for research and regulatory needs by federal agencies.
Class B random source dealers: Renews the prohibition against USDA licensing of Class B dealers, notorious for trafficking in dogs and cats obtained through pet theft for research and testing.
Primates in research: Directs the National Institutes of Health to report to Congress on alternatives to reduce and replace primates in biomedical research.
USDA inspector general: Presses this office to strengthen enforcement of the federal animal fighting law and to audit USDA enforcement of the AWA, HPA and Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
Humane slaughter: Directs the USDA to ensure that inspectors receive robust training and focus attention on humane handling rules at slaughter plants.
Pet food safety: Provides $500,000 for the Food and Drug Administration to address pentobarbital contamination in pet food, which has sickened and killed pets.
Disaster planning: Provides USDA funds to support state and local government efforts to address the needs of people with animals in disasters, and directs the USDA to work with producers that want to develop disaster plans to prevent livestock deaths and injuries.
Wildlife protection funding: Maintains level funding for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs that protect species listed under the Endangered Species Act, provides a nearly 30% increase for the Multinational Species Conservation Fund, and sustains funding for proactive, nonlethal measures to reduce the risk of wolf predation on livestock and to compensate producers for such losses.
Marine mammals: Provides $3 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for North Atlantic right whale conservation, including $1 million to develop fishing gear to reduce entanglements, and maintains funding for the Marine Mammal Commission.
Trophy imports: Directs the USFWS to reevaluate its current policy that allows imports of hunting trophies on a case-by-case basis and to analyze how assistance to the exporting countries’ conservation programs would impact the survival of elephants and lions, benefit local communities and sustain species.
Wildlife trafficking: Dedicates funds to combat the transnational threat of poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. Prohibits use of State Department funds by any military units or personnel credibly alleged to have participated in wildlife poaching or trafficking.

WILDLIFE PROTECTION
Congress moved forward on a panoply of bills to alleviate threats faced by some of the world’s most at-risk species:

The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, to prohibit the commercial trade of shark fins and products containing shark fins in the U.S., passed the House by a resounding 310-107 vote in November and cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in April.
The Big Cat Public Safety Act, approved by the House Natural Resources Committee in September, would ban exhibitor public contact activities—such as tiger cub petting and photo ops—and prohibit possession of big cats by individuals and entities lacking USDA licenses.
The Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered (SAVE) North Atlantic Right Whales Act (H.R. 1568/S. 2453), approved by the House Natural Resources Committee in October and the Senate Commerce Committee in November, would fund development and use of innovative technologies to reduce whale entanglements in fishing gear and collisions with shipping vessels.
The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies (CECIL) Act (H.R. 2245), named after a beloved African lion who was killed by an American trophy hunter, passed the House Natural Resources Committee in September, to substantially restrict the import and hunting of endangered or threatened species.
The Marine Mammal Research and Response Act (S. 2802) passed the Senate Commerce Committee in December, to reauthorize funding for a national stranding network that responds to more than 5,000 sick and injured marine mammals annually.
The Multinational Species Conservation Funds Semipostal Stamp Reauthorization Act (H.R. 1446/S. 652), passed by the House in November, would direct the U.S. Postal Service to resume selling the Save Vanishing Species stamp that has raised $5.4 million for international wildlife conservation.

We’re thrilled by 2019’s successes and excited by the many important reforms poised for final action this year. None of this would be possible without your support. We hope you will continue to join us in the fight for ALL animals in 2020.

Canadian Safari Club chapter shuts down Botswana elephant trophy hunt auction following protests

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 23:51:03 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The Safari Club International chapter in Calgary has just shut down its planned auction of the first elephant hunt in Botswana in seven years, following widespread protests by animal protection organizations in Canada. While this does not represent a break for Botswana’s elephants—the outfitter organizing the hunt will still be free to auction the hunt directly to a bidder anywhere in the world—the outcome shows the rising tide of public opinion against those who pillage and plunder the world’s most endangered and threatened animals for fun.

Photo courtesy of iStock.com

“SCI Calgary has agreed with the outfitter for them to sell [the hunt] directly at this time instead of at the auction, and so it has been withdrawn,” the chapter of the world's largest trophy hunting group announced on its website today. The auction had a starting bid of Canadian $82,000, with the hunt expected to take place between May and November this year.

"Canadians were rightfully outraged by this auction,” said Michael Bernard, deputy director of Humane Society International/Canada, which has, along with other groups in the Ivory Free Canada Coalition, petitioned the Canadian government to ban the import, domestic sale and export of all elephant ivory, including hunting trophies. “It is so encouraging to see that most Canadians will not simply stand by while a privileged few kill an elephant for an expensive thrill," he added.

The hunt follows a decision last year by Botswana’s president Mokgweetsi E. K. Masisi to overturn his nation’s much-lauded ban on trophy hunting elephants, in place since 2014. He did this despite the fact that elephants in his country are already in a fight for their lives, with poachers increasingly targeting them for their ivory and habitat loss limiting their ranges.

In a newspaper interview, David Little, the president of the SCI Calgary chapter, compared the hunt to “a trip for two to Tahiti. It’s the same genre of (adventure travel),” he told the Calgary Herald.

But elephant trophy hunting is not a lighthearted pursuit. A recently released census found that elephant populations in African Savannah nations, including Botswana, declined by 30 percent (equal to 144,000 elephants) between 2007 and 2014, or by about 8 percent per year, primarily due to poaching. Research shows that legal trophy hunting drives up the demand for elephant ivory and therefore poaching, and has serious consequences on elephant reproduction. That’s why we have made ending trophy hunting a priority at HSLF, HSUS, and our affiliates.

Here in the United States, elephant conservation took a giant step backward under the Trump administration in 2017, when the government reversed an Obama administration ban on elephant trophy imports from Zimbabwe and authorized lion trophies from Tanzania and Zimbabwe for the first time since the species was listed under the Endangered Species Act. The Zimbabwe and Tanzania elephant bans had led to a 60 percent drop in the number of elephant trophies imported into the United States—a number that will no doubt rise once again following the reversal. We’re now fighting these decisions in court.

Together, the Humane Society of the United State, Humane Society International and Humane Society Legislative Fund are also pushing in Congress for the passage of the Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies (ProTECT) Act, which would ban the import of any trophy of a species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act into the United States. The HSUS, HSI and our partner organizations have also petitioned the U.S. government to uplist the elephant from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and there has been some progress on that front, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicating that such action may be warranted

Botswana’s government has tried to pass off its decision to reopen trophy hunting as an attempt to resolve human-wildlife conflict, but conservation scientists warn that poorly regulated trophy hunting can actually worsen such conflict by disrupting animal groups and creating social chaos among their ranks. There are many peaceful and non-lethal ways to address human-wildlife conflict, and they don’t and shouldn’t involve trophy hunters.

We’ve already shown the way forward on this in countries committed to constructively addressing human-elephant conflicts where growth of very specific local populations requires management, like South Africa. There, we have been using innovative and non-lethal immunocontraception—a non-hormonal, non-steroidal, reversible population fertility control method—to humanely control the growth of populations, thereby reducing local elephant population densities.

Botswana’s decision to allow elephant trophy hunting has put the nation, once called the last safe haven for elephants, on the wrong side of history. But as the outcry in Canada shows, most people are fed up with trophy hunters and want more, not fewer, protections for these beloved gentle giants. President Masisi should take notice of the writing on the wall and act quickly to reverse course for his nation and its elephants before it's too late.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

BREAKING NEWS: Dept of Transportation moves to end breed discrimination on airlines

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 23:05:24 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The Department of Transportation today announced its plan to issue new regulations that would prohibit airlines from banning certain breeds of service dogs. This represents a much-needed move toward ending discriminatory policies by individual airlines that cause unnecessary and cruel hardships for customers with disabilities and their animals.

Image courtesy of iStock.com

The proposal follows a summertime announcement by Delta Airlines that it would no longer allow pit-bull-type dogs on its airplanes, even if they are certified service dogs. That decision failed to acknowledge what scientists and animal experts have agreed upon for years—that there is no evidence supporting the assertion that a dog poses a direct threat because of his or her breed.

With its decision, Delta placed an extreme and unnecessary hardship on its own customers, asking them to choose between air travel and essential service animals. It also ignored guidance from the DOT in August 2019 that instructed airlines not to prohibit service dogs on flights based on their breed or physical appearance alone.

The DOT confirmed that guidance in its announcement today and stated that it is not aware of nor has been presented with evidence supporting the assertion that an animal poses a direct threat simply because of its breed.

There is, in fact, absolutely no evidence that pit-bull-type dogs have more aggressive tendencies than other breeds. On the other hand, such dogs are increasingly serving as seeing eye and hearing dogs, as physical support dogs for balance and mobility, as medical alert dogs responding to various health issues such as low blood sugar, oncoming seizures, or low oxygen levels, and as support animals for individuals with psychological conditions such as PTSD.

What adds to the confusion is that there isn’t a specific breed called a “pit bull.” Instead the term is used loosely to refer to any medium sized and short haired dog with a large head. As a result, a large number of breeds are clubbed together under this moniker, including the Staffordshire Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, American Pit Bull Terrier and endless variations of mixed breeds.

Experts like the American Veterinary Medical Association, American Bar Association, American Kennel Club, American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, National Animal Control Association and Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association oppose any and all policies that discriminate against dogs whose physical characteristics are lumped into a breed. As awareness grows, dozens of municipalities have also done away with breed specific legislation in the last couple years. Just this month, Washington became the 21st state to prohibit its localities from passing such legislation.

There are some serious practical problems with such policies, too. Even professionals who work in the animal industry, including veterinarians, animal control officers and shelter employees, are unable to accurately identify breed based solely on the physical traits of the dog. An airline employee would find it impossible to decide which dog should be banned on the basis of his or her breed, leading to highly discretionary and inconsistent decisions. Airline personnel already have the discretion to prohibit an individual animal from flying if they are displaying unsafe behavior, and instead of creating breed discriminatory policies, airlines should train staff to look for signs of behavioral stress in dogs.

We applaud this proposed amendment that would bring airlines in line with the latest science while ensuring that individuals with disabilities and their service animals are adequately protected from frivolous discriminatory policies. The DOT also announced today its intent to prohibit exotic species, including capuchin monkeys and other primates, as service animals—concerns we have flagged in the past because of the health, safety and welfare risks involved. Please submit your comments supporting this rulemaking, and help us make air travel a safe, comfortable and stress-free experience for all individuals, including those with disabilities, and the animals who play such an important role in their lives.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

As racehorse death toll continues to climb, Congress moves to salvage the 'sport of kings'

Wed, 22 Jan 2020 20:20:57 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Horses dying at the racetracks with alarming frequency is a sadly familiar scenario of late, but even by that measure the body count over the past week is nothing short of astonishing. Since Friday alone, three horses have been euthanized at Santa Anita Park in California. First, it was a four-year-old gelding, Harliss, who had to be put down after breaking his ankle in a turf race; on Saturday, it was five-year-old Uncontainable, who also broke his ankle during a turf race; and on Sunday, four-year-old Tikkun Olam was injured and later euthanized after colliding with another horse during training.

Photo courtesy of marlenka/istock.com

There have now been five deaths at Santa Anita since January 1, bringing the number of deaths there to 42 since the beginning of last year. But that’s not the only track where horses are dying. Four horses have died over the last 10 days at the New Orleans Fair Grounds racetrack, and two horses fell and died on opening day at Harrah’s Louisiana Downs, taking the number of deaths on Louisiana tracks to six so far this year.

This is a grave situation, and a shameful one, and you’d think the industry would be racing to clean up its act and implement safeguards to protect its horses. Unfortunately, that has not been the case. While some reform-minded racetracks and state racing commissions have developed and implemented new safety measures, this patchwork effort only helps horses racing at specific racetracks. Above all, there has not been nearly enough momentum among the biggest stakeholders to recognize and correct problems, like the drug crisis that has contributed to thousands of racehorse deaths over the years.

Instead, what we have seen from some members of the industry is a pattern of drugging animals to enhance performance and mask pain, ignoring problems when they arise, and then resorting to obfuscation and cover-ups to explain horse deaths.

Last year, we wrote about how the California Horse Racing Board, comprised of some in the highest echelons of power in the industry, bent and twisted the rules to allow Justify to run in and win the Triple Crown after he failed a drug test only weeks before the Kentucky Derby. Last week, a report released on the death of Mongolian Groom, a horse who died in November at the Breeders' Cup Classic in Santa Anita, said veterinarians missed opportunities to remove the gelding from the $6 million race because of time constraints or deficiencies in the process used to evaluate horses.

The problem began at least as far back as 1980, when Congress decided to leave it up to states to come up with their own rules on what drugs to allow in horseracing. This led to a confusing patchwork of state laws with no uniform national standard regarding which drugs are permitted, or penalties for doping. That in turn has allowed the widespread use of both legal and illegal drugs to flourish, leading to a multitude of problems, for horses and riders alike. Some drugs allow a horse to push through pain, intensifying an underlying injury, or make it possible to force worn-out horses to compete, resulting in career-ending mishaps and even death.

The bottom line is that we need significant medication reform at every racetrack in every state that sponsors horseracing. This means stopping the use of legal and illegal drugs that are used to enhance the performance of equine athletes or mask their pain, and ending the current scenario within the horseracing industry, where those who promote the sport are allowed to police themselves.

There is now a bill in Congress that would do all of this, the Horseracing Integrity Act H.R.1754/S.1820. The Humane Society of the United States, the Humane Society Legislative Fund and the Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association have been working with the Jockey Club, along with dozens of other groups, to press for its passage. The bill, sponsored in the House by Reps. Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Andy Barr, R-Ky., and in the Senate by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Martha McSally, R-Ariz., would ban race day medication and substantially increase out-of-competition testing. It would also grant independent control over rule-making, testing and enforcement oversight regarding drugs and medication to a new authority created by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, an independent entity that oversees testing of athletes at the Olympics and many other sporting events in the United States, and it would create a uniform national standard for drug testing overseen by the new authority.

The HSLF prioritized the bill in its Humane Scorecard push, resulting in huge increases in its bipartisan cosponsor counts. From late September, when we first notified congressional offices that the Horseracing Integrity Act would be scored, the House cosponsor count jumped from 150 to 227 and the Senate count jumped from two to 25. The bill is now moving in Congress with over half the House of Representatives and a quarter of the Senate cosponsoring it. Next week we will be on the Hill, speaking out in its favor at a hearing of the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce. You too can help by contacting your lawmakers in Congress and asking them to cosponsor the Horseracing Integrity Act if they haven’t yet and press for its swift enactment. Horseracing is in a crisis, beset with a reputation problem and dwindling spectatorship, and with fatalities mounting, there is no time to lose.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Momentous 1st session of the 116th Congress sets the stage for our 2020 agenda

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 19:33:53 GMT

In the wake of one of our most effective years ever, we’re gearing up for the second session of the 116th Congress. During a time in which legislators are grappling with some of our nation’s most divisive issues, the American people have shown that animal protection remains one of our greatest bipartisan values.

Photo courtesy of iStock Photo

But many battles loom, and we’ll be fighting for animal welfare on numerous fronts, pursuing the prevention of systemic animal cruelty, the elimination of animal testing for cosmetics, a prohibition on the slaughter of horses for human consumption, and ending America’s contributions to the barbaric practices of shark finning and trophy hunting. Here are some key measures we’ll be working on:

PREVENTING ANIMAL CRUELTY

Humane Cosmetics Act:
Cosmetics tests on animals are poor predictors of human reaction, are painful to animals, and are unnecessary—there are other methods we can use to ensure that products are safe for humans. More than 1.7 billion consumers live in almost 40 countries and U.S. states that have banned the manufacture and sale of cosmetics tested on animals, including the European Union nations, India, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, California, Nevada, and Illinois. The Humane Cosmetics Act, which would prohibit the manufacture or sale of cosmetics tested on animals, will create a key incentive for the use of cutting-edge technologies that are more humane, more efficient, and less costly.

Puppy Protection Act and Welfare of our Friends (WOOF) Act:
So many Americans consider pets family members, and yet under the current federal standards, thousands of breeding dogs in puppy mills can spend their entire lives in small, cramped wire cages and the USDA renews licenses to breeders despite their facilities having inhumane conditions. The WOOF Act, prohibits the issuance or renewal of a license to breeders whose previous licenses have been revoked or suspended and to their immediate family members who often serve as a cover for the same abhorrent facility. The Puppy Protection Act would bolster the Animal Welfare Act to improve weak and outdated standards of care.

Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act:
Despite enactment of the Horse Protection Act almost 50 years ago to rein in the cruel practice of horse soring, the deliberate infliction of pain on horses’ legs and hoofs to gain competitive advantage in the show ring continues today. The PAST Act, which the House overwhelmingly approved last year, would end the failed system of industry self-policing, ban the use of devices associated with soring, and strengthen penalties to protect horses from this torment.

Horseracing Integrity Act:
Modern horseracing is still conducted under outdated, haphazard state-by-state drug and medication rules despite its national and international scope. In large part due to race-day enhancement and pain-masking drugs, the U.S. is experiencing some of the highest rates of fatal racing injuries the sport has ever seen. The Horseracing Integrity Act, supported by animal welfare and horseracing industry groups alike, will ban race-day medication, substantially increase out-of-competition testing for racehorses, and create a uniform medication policy under the oversight of a new non-profit headed by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the official anti-doping agency for the Olympic, Pan American, and Paralympic sports in the U.S.

ANIMAL AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act:
Horses—an integral part of American life as loyal companions and comrades in battle—are being exported by the thousands to slaughter for human consumption. They’re shipped abroad for long distances without food, water, or rest in crowded trucks, and the slaughter methods used at foreign plants rarely result in quick, painless deaths. The meat that’s put on the market contains unregulated, toxic chemicals unfit for human consumption. Passage of the SAFE Act would be a clear signal of Congress’s determination to maintain its prohibition on the slaughter of horses in the U.S. and finally end the export of our horses for slaughter.

Big Cat Public Safety Act:
All across the country, tigers, lions, and other big cats languish in substandard conditions caged in people’s backyards and basements and at roadside zoos, suffering inhumane conditions and posing serious public safety risks. Many of these animals are the byproduct of the “cub-petting” industry, which charges people for the chance to feed, play with, and take photos with big cat infants. Once the cats become too large for these activities, they often end up in unqualified hands while new cubs are bred to take their place in cub-petting businesses. The Big Cat Public Safety Act would ban public contact activities with big cats and prohibit possession of big cats by individuals and entities lacking a USDA license.

Providing Responsible Emergency Plans for Animals at Risk of Emerging Disasters (PREPARED) Act:
Given the increasing frequency and intensity of weather-related emergencies, preparing for disaster must include plans to safely care for and evacuate animals from affected areas. The PREPARED Act would require that entities regulated under the Animal Welfare Act (such as commercial animal dealers, exhibitors, research facilities, and animal carriers) do so. Disaster plans are already required under the accreditation process for research facilities, zoos, and aquariums; the PREPARED Act would ensure that puppy mills, roadside zoos and other outliers also have plans in place.

ENDING SLAUGHTER OF WILDLIFE

Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act:
We’re working closely with the Senate to put this vital legislation over the finish line, following passage of the bill in the House and the Senate Commerce Committee last year. To meet the global demand for shark fin soup, fins cruelly obtained from as many as 73 million sharks are traded on the global market annually. Some shark populations have declined by as much as 90 percent in recent decades. This bill prohibits the commercial trade of shark fins and products containing shark fins, removing the U.S. from this destructive global trade, strengthening the existing U.S. ban on shark finning, and helping preserve our oceans’ fragile ecosystems.

Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies (ProTECT) Act:
The ProTECT Act would prevent American trophy hunters from importing trophies of species listed under the Endangered Species Act or from killing threatened or endangered species in the U.S. Species listed under the ESA have a demonstrated scientific need for additional protections against population pressures such as poaching, trophy hunting, and other human-caused mortalities. As the world’s largest importer of animal trophies, the U.S. must do more to end the corruption of conservation programs worldwide and push strong development alternatives to trophy hunting.

We’re proud of the difference that we can make because of your support. When you make calls to and email your members of Congress to support animal protection issues and when you take steps to engage others, you make a real difference for animals. In the New Year, we’re counting on your continued engagement, and we look forward to working with you!

HSLF mourns the loss of Mike Fitzpatrick – a true animal champion

Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:29:44 GMT

Our hearts ache from news of the passing of our dear friend, former Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick, who represented the Bucks County suburbs of Pennsylvania from 2005-2007 and 2011-2017. He walked the halls of the U.S. House of Representatives with a quiet confidence rooted in living his ideals through the legislation he sponsored and the causes he championed. As the Republican co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus (CAPC) in the 114th Congress, he set the tone for the House to consider the merits of federal animal protection issues regardless of party affiliation. And this ethic has been continued by his brother Brian Fitzpatrick, who successfully ran for his seat in 2017 when Mike opted not to seek reelection, citing his belief in term limits. This ethic is also reflected by the 162 current members of the CAPC.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Mike Fitzpatrick was an inspirational and compassionate congressional leader who has left a profound impact. Through the CAPC, a bipartisan organization dedicated to supporting animal welfare issues, he hosted numerous briefings on key issues and championed countless bills, letters, and amendments. From 2012-2016, he was the lead sponsor of the Captive Primate Safety Act, a bill to prohibit interstate trade in primates for the exotic pet trade; these animals are often taken from their mothers shortly after birth and kept chained in a backyard or confined in a basement cage, and can become aggressive and dangerous and pose public health risks by transmitting diseases.

He also helped lead efforts to require humane treatment of farm animals used in federal research and to end vicious “soring” of Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds. He was never afraid to speak out. For example, we recall his eloquent defense of regulations to bar cruel hunting methods—such as killing hibernating mothers and cubs in their dens and using steel-jawed leghold trap—on National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge lands in Alaska. He worked to increase penalties for participants of dog fighting and cockfighting and to prohibit knowing attendance and bringing a child to these gruesome spectacles. He prioritized the safety of victims of domestic violence and their pets through his early support of the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, signed into law in 2018, and fought to criminalize acts of extreme abuse in interstate commerce and on federal property through the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, enacted this past November. He was a consistent opponent of horse slaughter and was always vigilant in pushing for animal protection provisions in federal spending bills.

We are so grateful to Mike Fitzpatrick for all that he did to advance the cause of making this a more humane world and we share our deepest condolences with his family. In the course of our efforts to help those who have no voice, it is good to know that we have had such a hero in our ranks. We’ll miss him deeply.

Let’s make this the year we end cosmetics testing in all of the United States

Thu, 02 Jan 2020 18:59:31 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Residents of three U.S. states can now buy cosmetics in stores without having to worry whether they may have been tested on animals. On New Year’s Day yesterday, a ban on the sales of cosmetics newly tested on animals went into effect in California, Illinois and Nevada. This signals the dawn of a new era when it comes to this practice that results in great suffering for tens of thousands of animals worldwide.

Paul Morigi/AP Images for HSLF

The Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund supported efforts to pass the laws—in California in 2018 and in Illinois and Nevada in 2019—and we are happy that these three states have stepped up. But even as we celebrate, it is important to remember that we still lack a nationwide ban on cosmetics animal testing and the sale of cosmetic products tested on animals.

Fortunately, there is now a bill in Congress, the Humane Cosmetics Act, to do just that, and we need to do our best to make 2020 the year it becomes law.

The HCA would, with certain exceptions, end all animal testing for cosmetic products and ingredients in the United States and prohibit the import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals anywhere else in the world. The bill prohibits companies from labeling their products as cruelty-free if they are selling their products in China where animal testing is still required.

This bill would put our country on par with nearly 40 nations, including the member states of the European Union, Australia, Guatemala, India, Israel, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey, all of which have passed laws prohibiting or limiting cosmetic animal testing.

With Humane Society International, we’ve driven this global momentum to end cosmetics testing in which substances are forced down the throats of animals, dripped into their eyes, or smeared onto their skin. The animals are left to suffer for days or weeks without pain relief. Most people do not want their beauty products to come at such great cost to innocent animals, and this has led to more and more consumers scanning labels on products to ensure they are cruelty-free.

With thousands of ingredients having a history of safe use and an increasing number of non-animal test methods available to provide data more relevant to humans, often in less time and at a lower cost, companies can still create new and innovative cosmetics without any additional animal testing. Many cosmetics producers, in fact, have been happy to comply with consumer demand for cruelty-free products, and already more than 1,000 brands in North America have committed to producing cosmetics that are free of new animal testing. Even global beauty giants Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and the Estée Lauder Companies have joined with HSI and our #BeCrueltyFree campaign to ban animal testing for cosmetics in all major global beauty markets by 2023.

The Humane Cosmetics Act has the endorsement of close to 300 stakeholders, including the Personal Care Products Council, the trade group representing the cosmetics industry in the United States.

There is no need for Congress to drag its feet on ending cosmetics testing nationwide. California, Illinois and Nevada have already set an example by showing us that so many Americans prefer the humane path forward on this issue. The Humane Cosmetics Act also has bipartisan support—it was introduced in the Senate by Sens. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and in the House by Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Ken Calvert, R-Calif.—showing that this is an issue that cuts across party lines and political beliefs.

We now need your help to get more lawmakers to sign on to this important bill. Please call your Representative and Senators in Congress and urge them to cosponsor the Humane Cosmetics Act if they haven’t already, and do all they can to get it enacted quickly. With the cosmetics industry, consumers and states increasingly turning away from cosmetics testing, there has never been a better time to set our nation on a decisive path away from the cruelty.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Update: Trump signs omnibus funding package with wins for horses and burros, companion animals, animals in research and more

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 23:35:21 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

President Trump has signed into law the omnibus appropriations package with major victories for animals, including horses and burros, companion animals, marine mammals and animals in zoos and research facilities.

Michelle Riley/The HSUS

The package, comprised of two bills (H.R. 1865 and H.R. 1158) funding all federal agencies for Fiscal Year 2020, was passed by the House on Tuesday with bipartisan votes of 297-120 and 280-138, respectively, followed by Senate votes of 71-23 and 81-11 yesterday.

The wins for animals in the package include:

Wild horses and burros: The funding package provides an additional $21 million to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program—funds that can only be accessed after the agency submits a comprehensive plan on how it will implement an aggressive, non-lethal program. The program must be based on scientifically sound, safe and humane fertility control tools that exclude surgical sterilization, an increased focus on adoptions, and relocation of wild horses and burros to larger, more humane pastures instead of perpetually warehousing these animals in holding pens. Additionally, the bill prohibits the BLM and, for the first time ever, also the U.S. Forest Service from killing or sending healthy horses or burros to slaughter.
Wildlife trafficking whistleblowers: The package includes the Rescuing Animals With Rewards Act, which authorizes the State Department to award monetary incentives to persons who disclose original information concerning transnational wildlife crimes that result in a successful enforcement action.
USDA inspection and enforcement records: Language in the omnibus directs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to promptly resume online posting of all inspection reports and enforcement records under the Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act in their entirety without redactions that obscure the identities of puppy mills, roadside zoos and other businesses cited for violations. This is the first time Congress has included bill language (rather than report language) to fix this problem, and the USDA will have no choice but to follow this directive.
Companion animals in domestic violence situations: The package provides $2 million for a new grant program authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, based on the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act. The grant program will help provide emergency and transitional shelter options for domestic violence survivors with companion animals. House committee report language directs the USDA, and the Departments of Health and Human Services as well as Housing and Urban Development to coordinate implementation during FY20 (House and Senate committee report language not explicitly reversed is deemed agreed to by both chambers in the omnibus).
Horse slaughter: Prohibits USDA expenditures on horse slaughter inspections, effectively preventing horse slaughter plants from operating in the U.S. during FY20.
Animal Welfare Act enforcement: The House committee report calls on the USDA to require that inspectors document every observed violation, to reverse concealment practices that the agency has promoted during the past few years. The omnibus includes $31,310,000 for Animal Welfare Act (AWA) enforcement.
Horse soring: Provides $1 million (a $295,000 increase) for USDA enforcement of the Horse Protection Act (HPA), to crack down on the cruel practice of “soring” Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds.
Alternatives to animal research/testing: Provides a $40 million increase to the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), which is charged with making direct applications of non-animal alternatives for research and regulatory needs by federal agencies. The additional funds will help speed the transition to non-animal methods.
Trafficking of companion animals for research and testing: Renews the prohibition against USDA using funds to license Class B random source dealers who are notorious for trafficking in dogs and cats obtained through theft for research and testing.
Use of primates in research: Omnibus report language directs the National Institutes of Health to report to Congress on alternatives to reduce and replace primates in biomedical research.
USDA enforcement: House committee report presses the USDA Inspector General to strengthen its animal fighting enforcement and to audit USDA’s enforcement of the AWA, HPA, and Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
Humane slaughter of farm animals: Renews bill and report language directing USDA to ensure that inspectors focus attention on compliance with humane handling rules for live animals as they arrive at slaughter plants and are offloaded and handled in pens, chutes, and stunning areas, and that all inspectors receive robust training.
Pet food safety: Provides $500,000 for the Food and Drug Administration to address pentobarbital contamination in pet food, which has caused illness and death in pets.
Disaster planning: Continues funding for the USDA to coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and to support state and local governments’ efforts to plan for protection of people with animals and incorporate lessons learned from previous disasters. Directs the USDA to work with producers that want to voluntarily develop disaster plans to prevent livestock deaths and injuries.
Vet care: Provides $8,000,000 for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment program that encourages veterinarians to locate in underserved rural or urban areas.
Wildlife protection funding: Maintains level funding for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs that protect species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Provides an increase of almost 30% from FY19 for the internationally focused Multinational Species Conservation Fund. The omnibus also rejects a proposed cut to the Wolf Livestock Demonstration Program, maintaining funding for its grants supporting proactive, non-lethal measures by livestock producers to reduce the risk of livestock loss by wolves, and to compensate producers for livestock losses caused by wolves.
Marine mammals: Provides $3 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for North Atlantic right whale conservation, with $1 million specifically reserved for a pilot project for research and development of safer fishing gear to lessen entanglements with these critically endangered whales. Also maintains funding of the Marine Mammal Commission—a key independent federal agency tasked with addressing human impacts on marine mammals and their ecosystems—overcoming its proposed elimination in the President’s budget.
Trophy imports: Directs the USFWS to reevaluate its current policy allowing imports of hunting trophies on a case-by-case basis and analyze how targeted investments and technical assistance to the exporting countries' conservation programs would impact the survival of elephants and lions, improve local communities, and sustain species’ populations. The omnibus expresses concern that the current trophy import policy is detrimental and may not adequately determine whether a country has proper safeguards in place to protect species vulnerable to poaching.
Wildlife trafficking: Dedicates funds under the State Department and the Department of the Interior to combat the transnational threat of wildlife poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. Prohibits use of State Department funds by any military units or personnel credibly alleged to have participated in wildlife poaching or trafficking.

We are grateful to the many congressional champions of these provisions with whom we worked over the past year, to House and Senate leadership for keeping the process on track, and to all the legislators who voted for these measures. We also thank President Trump for signing both appropriations bills, helping us create a brighter future for animals in 2020 and beyond.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Cockfighting ban in U.S. territories takes effect tomorrow, despite resistance in Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 20:22:52 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Tomorrow, a hard-won federal law goes into effect to close a loophole that allowed cockfighters to continue operating in U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. We’ve strongly supported this law because it seeks to end a cruel practice that results in severe suffering and death for countless birds each year.

Photo by Heather Severt/the HSUS

Regrettably, however, cockfighters and their associated lobbies in the territories have been putting up resistance and seeking to undermine it. Puerto Rico, for instance, has passed a law that aims to keep cockfighting alive there. But the federal law has already been challenged by cockfighters, and they have lost. In late October a federal district court for the District of Puerto Rico found that Congress was well within its power to clarify that the existing federal ban on cockfighting in the U.S. states applies equally to the U.S. territories.

Our hope is that lawmakers in the affected territories will respond in the way that governors of U.S. states and other jurisdictions have done in the past when such cruelties have come within the scope of law enforcement in an increasingly humane society. They ought to be thinking ahead to ways to lay the groundwork for the implementation and respect of such statutes.

All too often, those who are involved in this blood sport, anywhere in the world, claim cockfighting as a tradition and a culture. But tradition and culture are not a defense for animal cruelty. Cockfighting pits one animal against another for gambling and entertainment. The birds suffer terribly: they are often drugged to heighten their aggression and razor-sharp weapons are attached to their legs for the fight. Common injuries include punctured lungs, broken bones, and pierced eyes. Dead and dying birds are thrown away like trash. And that’s simply not right.

That’s why the Parity in Animal Cruelty Enforcement (PACE) Act was introduced in Congress in 2017—and that’s why we’ve supported it in every way.

Humane Society Legislative Fund and the Humane Society of the United States fought hard for this legislation because there shouldn’t be one set of rules against animal fighting in 50 states and another set for the U.S. territories. We worked with the bill’s many champions in Congress to get it enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support.

What makes such a law even more necessary is the fact that animal fighting is often associated with other criminal activity, including gangs, gambling, drug trafficking, illegal weapons dealing, public corruption, and violent crimes against people. It also endangers public health; cockfighting has been directly implicated in the spread of bird flu and other diseases that have caused human deaths and cost taxpayers and the poultry industry millions of dollars.

We look forward to PACE taking effect tomorrow. The HSUS, with other animal organizations, is active in the U.S. territories and elsewhere in the world, helping to strengthen the human-animal bond and to build out a culture of petkeeping and kindness to animals. We are very committed to the spread of humane values throughout the United States and its territories, and, indeed, throughout the world. That’s our mission and that’s our standard that we’ll assert and defend in the years to come.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Leading animal protection and conservation groups send a letter urging U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reject any import request for Trump Jr.’s argali sheep trophy

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 09:58:11 -0600

Today conservation and animal protection organizations sent a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking them to deny the import permit for the horns, skin or other parts of a trophy-hunted argali sheep killed by Donald Trump Jr. in Mongolia.

U.S. should deny Trump Jr. permit to import endangered sheep trophy from Mongolia

Thu, 19 Dec 2019 15:30:27 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Last week, the news that Donald Trump Jr. had trophy hunted an argali sheep protected by the U.S. Endangered Species Act during a trip to Mongolia outraged Americans. Just as outrageous was the revelation that this hunt, which took place last summer, was partially funded by U.S. taxpayers.

Photo by Conrad Savy/Creative Commons License

No American—regardless of his or her wealth and political connections—should be above the law. That’s why, in a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today, the Humane Society Legislative Fund, the Humane Society of the United States, and Humane Society International, along with the Center for Biological Diversity, are calling on the agency to refuse to allow Trump Jr. to import the body parts of the animal he killed.

The letter states that argali sheep are an imperiled species who should not be hunted for their horns or hides to serve as wall hangings. "The reporting on Mr. Trump Jr.’s argali hunt—that was conducted at night with a laser guided rifle, and without a hunting permit issued before the hunt—raises serious questions regarding the legality of the killing and subsequent import of the animal."

As ProPublica reported, Trump’s hunt was partially funded by U.S. and Mongolian taxpayers because each country sent security services to accompany the president’s eldest son and grandson on the multiday trip. After the hunt, Trump Jr. is reported to have met privately with the country’s president, Khaltmaagiin Battulga, before returning to the United States.

It was also reported that Trump Jr. did not have a Mongolian permit to kill the argali—a beautiful animal with long, curving horns—when the hunt took place. A permit was issued to him by the Mongolian government only after he had already departed the country, in what was clearly a hasty attempt to cover up a violation of Mongolian law. Such a violation should by itself disqualify Trump Jr. from bringing his trophy home.

Argali from Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan are listed as threatened in the U.S. Endangered Species Act, and import of a hunting trophy of an ESA-listed species can be authorized only if it furthers conservation. There is no evidence that this was the case here. In fact, Mongolia has a history of using these beautiful and endangered animals as lures for those with money, connections, and politics, and has not updated its argali hunting management plan in a decade.

A 2017 FWS finding shows that only a small percentage of hunting license fees in Mongolia actually go to argali conservation and community livelihoods.

Most Americans are opposed to trophy hunting, and do not believe in the canard spread by trophy hunting interests that killing one animal can help save an entire species. In fact, an increasing number of conservation scientists have challenged the notion that trophy hunting benefits conservation.

There is no doubt that Trump Jr. behaved unethically when he pointed a laser guided rifle at a beautiful animal whose species is in a struggle for survival. But this is not just about his poor ethics. As the son of the sitting president, his actions have also put our nation’s reputation as a global leader in the fight to conserve endangered wildlife at great risk. That’s why we urge the USFWS to follow the law and not show any special favors to this trophy hunter who has disgraced our nation and disappointed so many of us with his actions. Our laws should apply equally to every American, regardless of wealth, influence, political connections, or name.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

BREAKING NEWS: CDC ties Petland to outbreaks of superbug illnesses in 13 states

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 21:08:43 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Petland is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons, this time in connection with a multistate outbreak of a superbug that has sickened 30 people in 13 states.

Photo by the HSUS

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported today that four people have been hospitalized after being infected with a strain of the campylobacter bacterium that’s resistant to multiple drugs. "Many of the cases had contact with puppies or were employees at pet stores, including Petland," the CDC concluded, after its investigations linked 12 of those sickened with the national pet store chain that still sells dogs sourced from puppy mills. Five of the affected individuals were Petland employees.

The Humane Society of the United States has turned a red-hot spotlight on Petland’s substandard procedures and deficient animal welfare practices with undercover investigations at eight of its stores over the past two years, and as saddening as the news today from the CDC is, we are not surprised. Petland has been endangering the health of its employees and its consumers for years now. In previous years, the CDC has linked more than 118 cases of human campylobacter bacterial infections to contact with Petland puppies, which resulted in a number of people being hospitalized. Our investigations have repeatedly shown that despite these reported outbreaks, Petland has refused to take adequate proactive steps to prevent such outbreaks.

During our last investigation, at the Petland in Florence, Kentucky, a store manager admitted on hidden camera that the store doesn’t test puppies with diarrhea for the disease because "they all have it."
Jasper, a puppy we bought at the store as part of our investigation had been sick for weeks with bloody diarrhea and had a poor appetite, but it appears the store never even took him to a veterinarian for his illness. After we acquired Jasper and took him to a veterinarian, he tested positive for campylobacter. Fortunately, Jasper did not seem to have the drug-resistant strain, and recovered after finally receiving much-needed care. A Petland manager who talked to our secret shopper during Jasper’s sale emphatically stated Jasper did not have campylobacter after our shopper saw him with diarrhea. The manager claimed his stool had been tested, but when we called both Petland and the store’s veterinarian, they did not provide any proof that Jasper was ever tested.
Records we obtained from the Kentucky Department for Public Health showed that at least six people became ill with campylobacter this year alone after touching or buying puppies at the Florence store; at least two of the victims were hospitalized.
Our investigations of both the Frisco, Texas, and Florence, Kentucky Petland stores this year ended promptly when our undercover investigators at both stores were diagnosed with campylobacter after going to urgent care clinics for persistent flu-like symptoms. Fortunately, neither investigator seemed to have the drug-resistant strain of campylobacter, and they both responded to medical treatment.
Our investigation at a Novi, Michigan, Petland store found that customers regularly called with complaints about sick puppies they had purchased. A staff member at the store revealed that she had contracted campylobacter and had been hospitalized for four days. The store was sued this year for the third time in recent years after a customer in the Novi store became ill with the drug-resistant strain of campylobacter; he too was hospitalized.
CDC recommends diligently testing any animals with symptoms for campylobacter, but as our investigators uncovered, Petland was not doing that. At best, stores routinely had low-level employees dose sick dogs with antibiotics instead of having them (or even a stool sample) taken to a vet.

One of the reasons we also see so many campylobacter outbreaks at Petland is because the chain continues to source animals from puppy mills, which do not provide adequate professional medical care or sanitation to their animals. Dogs shipped to pet stores from dozens of different breeders are intermingled during transport in such a way that the CDC has had great difficulty tracing the original source of the outbreak, making future cases of illness almost a certainty. On the other hand, Petland spends a vast amount of its resources each year fighting commonsense laws to protect animals in puppy mills.

No business should be allowed to put its bottomline above the health of its customers and employees, and the animals in its possession. With more and more localities banning the sales of dogs from puppy mills in pet stores, and with these continued outbreaks of diseases, the writing is on the wall for pet stores like Petland which, in their own way, perpetuate the miseries caused by puppy mills.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Trump Jr.’s Mongolia gambit fuels public outcry, Congressional action against trophy hunting

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 13:35:00 GMT

The news that Donald Trump Jr. had killed an imperiled species of sheep for a trophy in Mongolia in August 2019, without a permit, was shocking but not a surprise. American trophy hunters are accustomed to traveling the world to slay animals with impunity.

Photo courtesy Publicdomainphotos-Dreamstime.com

But they can no longer do so without public scrutiny. The broad outcry over Trump Jr.’s secret trophy hunt reinforces the point that most Americans disapprove of killing threatened and endangered species, something they’ve signaled again and again since the killing of Cecil the lion in 2015. Over the last few years, we’ve been blessed to see the emergence of a strong and unified cultural intolerance for such indiscriminate slaughter by American hunters of wealth and privilege.

Congress is paying attention and has recently introduced legislation designed to halt American trophy hunters’ reckless rampage across the globe and their senseless killing of animal species already under threat. The Prohibiting Threatened and Endangered Creature Trophies (ProTECT) Act of 2019 would prohibit both the import of trophies and the hunting in the U.S. of threatened and endangered species.

Sadly, our country is the world’s largest importer of animal trophies, including federally protected species that our nation spends millions of taxpayer dollars to protect. Certainly, we must do all that we can to address the external pressures of poaching, habitat loss, and other human-caused mortality now driving many animal species toward extinction. But restricting trophy hunting of ESA-listed species would be an especially vital contribution to genuinely protect such animals throughout the world.

The ProTECT Act has received a strong boost in the form of scientific findings and public support from the academic community. Not long ago, a group of scientists challenged a letter published in Science, which emphasized the benefits of trophy hunting to conservation, on the grounds that the information presented was false and that some of the letter’s authors were closely tied to the trophy hunting industry.

For many of us, and plenty of hunters, there is an important distinction between the action of a trophy hunter who kills imperiled species for fun and to get a “trophy” to take home to put on display, and that of hunters who kill to put food on the table. Opinion polls conducted in the U.S suggest that American hunters see trophy hunting as the least acceptable reason to kill an animal, with 72 percent of the hunting community denouncing it.

For years, anxious to defend the lax legal and enforcement policies of the animals’ home range nations, trophy hunters have paradoxically claimed that America has no business trying to dictate or intervene in other countries’ affairs. Yet, they have also argued that local communities are highly dependent on trophy hunting’s single-source revenues and boasted about the degree to which their killing of animals drives conservation incentives.

Now, however, there’s a new bulwark against such misrepresentation in the form of emerging alternatives that better support America’s foreign aid goals of stability, anti-corruption, and sustainable economic growth in local economies where trophy hunting takes place. The evidence of benefits and value tied to non-lethal wildlife related tourism is growing.

Public support is the bedrock of our successes in Washington, D.C., and you are our most powerful ally in instituting meaningful change. With growing bipartisan support, the ProTECT Act of 2019 represents an opportunity to bring about the demise of trophy hunting and to promote and strengthen ecologically and economically superior options like wildlife tourism. When Congress returns after the holiday break, we’re going to hit the ground running in our campaign to advance this exciting measure. And we’re going to need your continued, sustained engagement to stop trophy hunting dead in its tracks.

Please contact your Members of Congress and urge them to cosponsor the ProTECT Act

Urgent alert: Help us stop the USDA's latest attempt to protect puppy millers, horse sorers

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 18:30:47 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Recently, in a shocking move, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced its plans to continue to conceal crucial animal welfare records from public view, including inspection reports and enforcement records of puppy mills, roadside zoos, and horse shows where Tennessee walking horses and related breeds are vulnerable to soring. This is a blatant attempt to keep Americans in the dark about how a taxpayer-funded agency is enforcing animal welfare laws, and we urgently need your help to stop it.

Photo by Meredith Lee/The HSUS

With this proposal, published at the end of October in the Federal Register, the USDA is trying to completely normalize its purge in January 2017 of substantive Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act records from its website. It’s a disservice to the American public and an action meant to let regulated industries and interests carry on without oversight or accountability.

The Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund have been fighting a hot war against this lack of transparency within our federal agencies for the last several years because we believe that there ought to be an unambiguous standard when it comes to our government’s commitment to animal welfare. This is one of the most important fights of this kind--to preserve the American public’s right to know how enterprises that keep or use animals are treating them--for many reasons. For instance, recent outbreaks of diseases such as drug-resistant campylobacter infections and brucellosis have been linked to USDA-licensed puppy mills, and the public has a right to know what, if anything, the agency is doing to make sure that animals are cared for in clean and healthy environments.

The institutions, industries and operations now regulated by the USDA are commercial entities that sell or use animals, not individuals who keep animals for their own private companionship. Over the years, access to the USDA's inspection and enforcement records has made it possible for us and others to track the rigor of the government’s efforts to regulate such stakeholders, and in some cases, to use that information to advance or to publicize compelling animal welfare concerns. Were this misconceived proposal to go into effect, our government would give puppy millers, horse sorers, laboratory managers, roadside zoo operators and other entities a free hand to conduct their affairs with no fear of public scrutiny.

We cannot let this happen. So far, more than 5,000 people have commented on this regulatory change, almost all in opposition to it. But in order to win this fight, we need more people to weigh in before the Dec. 26 deadline. Please leave your comment at this link, and let the USDA know quickly that you do not approve of this regulatory change that blocks public online access to key animal welfare records. The American people needs full searchable access to this data to ensure government transparency and proper enforcement of the AWA and HPA—laws that are intended to protect animals and the public.

Please use or personalize this message:

I am writing to oppose the USDA’s decision to further hide crucial Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA) records from the public. USDA should reinstate its public, searchable database for all AWA and HPA inspection reports and enforcement records including warning letters, administrative complaints, stipulations, settlement agreements and court orders, consistent with USDA’s practice of many years prior to 2017.

Full access to this data is crucial to ensure government transparency and proper enforcement of the AWA and HPA, laws which are intended to protect animals and the public. The parties regulated under these laws are not private individuals, but commercial entities acting as businesses, so the personal privacy concerns cited by USDA when removing the records from its site are invalid.

Moreover, the public has a vital interest in the information. Inspection and enforcement records allow, for example, a consumer to check if a puppy breeder is complying with the AWA to ensure the animals are being treated adequately and to prevent the spread of disease. Providing consumers access to this information encourages regulated entities to comply with the law. These records are also needed to determine whether USDA is doing its job under the AWA and HPA. Rather than protecting commercial entities by concealing their bad behavior from the public, USDA should focus on the legitimate public interests in government transparency, animal welfare, and public health and safety.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

BREAKING NEWS: Congress has reached a deal to fund the government and it’s good news for animals!

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 01:37:38 GMT

There are various approaches the HSLF team uses to bring about changes for animals, and one of our best tools is to pursue bill and report language in the annual appropriations bills that Congress must enact each year to fund the federal government and its agencies. We’ve been hard at work on this all year long—and it paid off in significant wins. We are thrilled to report that the U.S. House and Senate have struck a deal on a Fiscal Year 2020 appropriations package (known as an “omnibus”), which impacts our companion animals, wildlife, wild horses and burros, marine mammals, and animals in zoos and research facilities. Here are some highlights in the package:

iStock Photo

Wild horses and burros—Provides an additional $21 million to the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse and Burro Program, funds that can only be accessed after the agency submits a comprehensive plan on how it will implement an aggressive, non-lethal program. The program must be based on scientifically-sound, safe and humane fertility control tools excluding surgical sterilization, an increased focus on adoptions, and relocation of wild horses and burros to larger, more humane pastures instead of perpetually warehousing these animals in holding pens. Additionally, the bill prohibits the BLM and, for the first time ever, also the U.S. Forest Service from killing or sending to slaughter healthy horses or burros.
Wildlife trafficking whistleblowers—Includes the Rescuing Animals With Rewards Act, which authorizes the State Department to award monetary incentives to persons who disclose original information concerning transnational wildlife crimes that result in a successful enforcement action.
USDA data purge—Directs USDA to promptly resume online posting of all inspection reports and enforcement records under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA), in their entirety without redactions that obscure the identities of puppy mills, roadside zoos, and other businesses cited for violations. This is the first time Congress has included bill language (rather than report language) to fix this problem, and USDA will have no choice but to follow this directive.
PAWS—Provides $2 million for a new grant program authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, based on the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, to help provide emergency and transitional shelter options for domestic violence survivors with companion animals. House committee report language directs the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development to coordinate implementation during FY20 (House and Senate committee report language not explicitly reversed is deemed agreed to by both chambers in the omnibus).
Horse slaughter—Prohibits USDA expenditures on horse slaughter inspections, effectively preventing horse slaughter plants from operating in the U.S. during FY20.
AWA enforcement—House committee report calls on USDA to require that inspectors document every observed violation, to reverse concealment practices that the agency has promoted during the past few years. The omnibus includes $31,310,000 for Animal Welfare Act enforcement.
Horse soring—Provides $1 million (a $295,000 increase) for USDA enforcement of the HPA, to crack down on the cruel practice of “soring” Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds.
Class B random source dealers—Renews the prohibition against USDA using funds to license these dealers who are notorious for trafficking in dogs and cats obtained through theft for research and testing.
Use of primates in research—Omnibus report language directs the National Institutes of Health to report to Congress on alternatives to reduce and replace primates in biomedical research.
USDA Inspector General—House committee report presses this office to strengthen its animal fighting enforcement and to audit USDA’s enforcement of the AWA, HPA, and Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
Humane slaughter—Renews bill and report language directing USDA to ensure that inspectors focus attention on compliance with humane handling rules for live animals as they arrive at slaughter plants and are offloaded and handled in pens, chutes, and stunning areas, and that all inspectors receive robust training.
Pet food safety—Provides $500,000 for the Food and Drug Administration to address pentobarbital contamination in pet food, which has caused illness and death in pets.
Disaster planning—Continues funding for USDA to coordinate with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and to support state and local governments’ efforts to plan for protection of people with animals and incorporate lessons learned from previous disasters. Directs USDA to work with producers that want to voluntarily develop disaster plans to prevent livestock deaths and injuries.
Vet care—Provides $8,000,000 for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment program that encourages veterinarians to locate in underserved rural or urban areas.
Wildlife protection funding—Maintains level funding for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs that protect species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Provides an increase of almost 30% from FY19 for the internationally focused Multinational Species Conservation Fund. The omnibus also rejects a proposed cut to the Wolf Livestock Demonstration Program, maintaining funding for its grants supporting proactive, non-lethal measures by livestock producers to reduce the risk of livestock loss by wolves, and to compensate producers for livestock losses caused by wolves.
Marine mammals—Provides $3 million to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for North Atlantic right whale conservation, with $1 million specifically reserved for a pilot project for research and development of safer fishing gear to lessen entanglements with these critically endangered whales. Also maintains funding of the Marine Mammal Commission—a key independent federal agency tasked with addressing human impacts on marine mammals and their ecosystems—overcoming its proposed elimination in the President’s budget.
Trophy imports—Directs the USFWS to reevaluate its current policy allowing imports of hunting trophies on a case-by-case basis and analyze how targeted investments and technical assistance to the exporting countries' conservation programs would impact the survival of elephants and lions, improve local communities, and sustain species’ populations. The omnibus expresses concern that the current trophy import policy is detrimental and may not adequately determine whether a country has proper safeguards in place to protect species vulnerable to poaching.
Wildlife trafficking—Dedicates funds under the State Department and the Department of the Interior to combat the transnational threat of wildlife poaching and illicit wildlife trafficking. Prohibits use of State Department funds by any military units or personnel credibly alleged to have participated in wildlife poaching or trafficking.

These victories are the product of months of effort, as we worked with Appropriations Committee leaders in the House and Senate and mobilized constituent support and strong bipartisan engagement for them. The package demonstrates again how animal protection transcends party lines and reflects core American values. We are hopeful that the House and Senate will swiftly approve this package and President Trump will sign it into law before Friday’s deadline, to bring all these accomplishments over the finish line.

HSLF and HSUS deliver big wins for animals in 2019: Our banner year in the nation's capital

Fri, 13 Dec 2019 15:57:03 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Given the highly polarized atmosphere in Washington, DC, these days, our crucial bipartisan wins for animals in 2019 give great cause for celebration. Thanks to the support and engagement of countless Americans, we hit our marks this year. We succeeded in getting one of our highest priorities, a landmark federal anti-cruelty bill, signed into law. And that’s not all. Read on to learn about some of the other achievements you helped to make possible.

Photo by Mark Bacon/Alamy Stock Photo

Animal Cruelty

The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, P.L. 116-72, enacted on November 25 following unanimous approval in the Senate and House, strengthens the 2010 federal animal "crush video" law by banning extreme animal cruelty in or affecting interstate commerce regardless of whether a video was produced.

Horse Soring

The Prevent All Soring Tactics (PAST) Act, H.R. 693, won a sweeping bipartisan vote of 333-96 in the House in July, and S. 1007, the identical companion bill, counts half the Senate as cosponsors. The PAST Act cracks down on the cruel practice of "soring" Tennessee Walking Horses and related breeds.

Wildlife Protection

With our urging, Congress moved forward on measures to address some of the most urgent threats to the world’s iconic and at-risk wild species, including:

Wildlife trafficking—The Rescuing Animals With Rewards (RAWR) Act, H.R. 97/S. 1590, passed both the House and Senate. It authorizes the U.S. Department of State to target wildlife traffickers globally and combat international crime networks, including terrorist organizations. We hope to see the President sign this bill into law soon.
Sharks—The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, H.R. 737/S. 877, passed the House by a resounding 310-107 vote in November, having cleared the Senate Commerce Committee in April. It prohibits the commercial trade in this country of shark fins and products containing shark fins, thereby reducing global demand for shark fins, helping reduce cruel finning and protecting ocean ecosystems.
Whales—The Scientific Assistance for Very Endangered (SAVE) North Atlantic Right Whales Act, H.R. 1568/S. 2453, won approval by the House Natural Resources Committee in October and the Senate Commerce Committee in November. With no more than 400 North Atlantic right whales surviving, this bill provides vital federal funding for research to develop, test and use innovative technologies and other strategies to reduce the two main threats to the species: entanglements in fishing gear and vessel collisions.
Big cats—The Big Cat Public Safety Act, H.R. 1380/S. 2561, received House Natural Resources Committee approval in September. It reduces the number of captive tigers, lions, cougars, and other big cats living in substandard conditions and protects public safety by banning public contact activities—such as “cub petting” and photo ops—and by prohibiting possession of big cats by individuals and entities lacking a USDA license.
Trophy imports—The Conserving Ecosystems by Ceasing the Importation of Large Animal Trophies (CECIL) Act, H.R. 2245, passed the House Natural Resources Committee in September. This bill substantially restricts the import and hunting of any species listed or proposed to be listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Appropriations

We brought home some big victories for animals in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 omnibus bill signed into law in February, and within the House and/or Senate FY20 Appropriations bills, including:

PAWS—The Senate bill provides $3 million for a grant program authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, based on the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act, to support emergency and transitional shelter options for domestic violence survivors with companion animals. The House bill provides $2 million for these grants and includes language directing relevant federal agencies to coordinate implementation during FY20.
Horse slaughter—The House and Senate bills both prohibit USDA expenditures on horse slaughter inspections, effectively preventing horse slaughter plants from operating in the U.S. during FY20.
USDA data purge—The House bill directs USDA to promptly resume online posting of all inspection reports and enforcement records under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA), in their entirety without redactions that obscure the identities of puppy mills, roadside zoos, and other businesses cited for violations.
AWA enforcement—The House committee report calls on USDA to require that inspectors document every observed violation, to reverse concealment practices adopted by the agency in recent years.
Wild horses and burros—The House bill provides $6 million for a non-lethal pilot program using scientifically-based safe and humane fertility control tools excluding surgical sterilization, an increased focus on adoptions, and relocation to larger, more humane pasture facilities instead of perpetual warehousing in holding pens. The Senate bill provides $35 million to expand these humane and non-lethal management strategies to all wild horses and burros in the Bureau of Land Management’s care, and both the House and Senate bills prohibit the BLM and U.S. Forest Service from killing or sending to slaughter healthy wild horses or burros.
Animal testing alternatives—The House bill provides $39.4 million more than the President proposed for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Computational Toxicology Program and Endocrine Disruptor Program, which develop replacements for animal tests.

We also delivered big results on the regulatory front, including:

Animal Testing

In September, the EPA announced that it plans to phase out and end all animal testing on mammals for chemicals and pesticides. Instead, the agency will focus on non-animal alternative technologies that are faster, more reliable and do not cause suffering. The agency plans to substantially reduce animal tests, including those it commissions in-house, as well as those that it requires businesses to conduct, by 2025, and to end them altogether by 2035.

Wild Horses

In March, the BLM agreed to return to a 2014 policy that allows individuals and organizations to buy only four wild horses over a six-month period, a necessary safeguard to ensure wild horses and burros aren’t bought by kill buyers who will send them to slaughter. Last year, the administration had put in place a new sales policy that allowed 25 horses to be purchased at a time, with no time limit between the purchases.

Licensing Requirements for the Animal Welfare Act

In March, USDA proposed a rule regarding much-needed changes to AWA licensing procedures. The rule includes a number of positive regulatory changes, such as requiring that licensees demonstrate compliance with the AWA regulations before being issued a license or a renewal, and requiring that dog breeding facilities provide continuous access to water, annual veterinary checks, and immunizations for diseases.

Relocation of Wolves to Isle Royale National Park

In March of 2018, the National Park Service announced its decision to augment the dwindling Isle Royale, Michigan wolf population with 20-30 animals within three years, as it was crucial for genetic diversity and ecological stability of this National Park. Currently, there are 17 wolves in the park, up from 2 when the relocation effort began.

When you sign on as a supporter of the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund, it’s because you want to see the passage and implementation of positive protection measures for animals, prohibitions against cruelty across the range of issues, and legislative and regulatory action that makes both our nation and our planet much, much better for animals. We’re gearing up big-time for 2020, and we’re going to bring fight, poise, and will to the ambitious agenda we’ve set for ourselves. We work hard for animals, but we’re also working hard for you, our donors and supporters, and we never forget the simple fact that none of this would be possible without your support. We’re counting on you to stay with us in the fight for ALL animals in 2020.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and President of Humane Society International, the international affiliate of the HSUS.

Breaking news: U.S. House rejects amendment threatening protections for whales, dolphins

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 23:18:37 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The U.S. House has just voted 259 to 160 to reject a bad amendment that would have placed some of America’s most critically endangered marine mammals at even greater risk for their lives while making it easier for oil and gas interests to conduct offshore development activities.

Photo courtesy of noaa.gov

The amendment offered by Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., would have eviscerated core provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act to fast-track approval of seismic gun surveys done for offshore oil and gas development. Currently, under the Act, which has provided protections to marine mammals, including whales, dolphins, seals, and sea lions, since 1972, anyone who seeks to proceed with an activity that can cause the harassment, hunting, capture or killing of marine mammals in U.S. waters needs to apply for an “incidental take permit.”

There are good reasons for such safeguards. Seismic gun surveys send deafening pulses of sound to the ocean floor which bounce back up to be analyzed for signs of oil and gas deposits on the ocean floor. These are intense blasts of sound, which occur every four to six seconds for hours at a time and for days, weeks, or months on end, and they disturb feeding, breeding, and other behaviors among whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. They’ve even caused deaths of animals.

Rep. Johnson’s amendment would have provided an automatic approval process for such permits if the National Marine Fisheries Service didn’t issue a permit “fast enough.” It would also have allowed those with incidental take permits to harm more whales and dolphins, in a much larger area of the ocean. Additionally, it would have limited the NMFS’s ability to take into account any potential cumulative impacts that might threaten marine mammals, such as from multiple surveys in the same area.

Had the amendment gone through, it would have been particularly dangerous for North Atlantic right whales, already critically endangered, with less than 400 surviving along the U.S. and Canadian coast. Allowing more seismic gun surveys in their habitat could be devastating to this species.

We applaud House members for rightly rejecting this insidious amendment. This is a clear signal to Rep. Johnson and the oil and gas interests that Americans believe in the protection of precious marine wildlife and won’t sacrifice their interests so lightly.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Extreme animal cruelty can now be prosecuted as a federal crime

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 17:16:01 -0600

The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act, a federal anti-cruelty bill, is now law. This animal protection measure sailed through the House of Representatives and the Senate with unanimous support and was just signed by the president.

BREAKING NEWS: President Trump signs PACT Act; law will crack down on some of the worst animal cruelty crimes

Mon, 25 Nov 2019 22:54:57 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

Starting today, those who commit the most extreme acts of cruelty against animals will face severe federal penalties.

At the White House for the bill signing, from left,
Anna Marie Malloy, Kitty Block, Sara Amundson,
and Tracie Letterman.

President Trump has just signed into law the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture (PACT) Act that authorizes the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies to prosecute malicious animal cruelty, including crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating and impaling live animals, and other abuses such as sexually exploiting them. Under PACT, prosecutors will be able to bring federal felony charges when these acts occur within federal jurisdiction (including on federal property), or when animals are moved across state lines, or the internet is used as part of a criminal enterprise.

This is a day we—and you—have long worked for, and we were honored today to attend the bill signing ceremony at the White House with our colleagues Tracie Letterman and Anna Marie Malloy.

Animal cruelty is a felony in all 50 states because of laws we fought hard to put in place. In 2010, Congress passed the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act, which banned the creation, sale and distribution of obscene videos depicting extreme acts of animal cruelty. But as our Animal Protection Litigation team discovered, the law had a glaring loophole—federal law enforcement could not take legal action if the animal cruelty occurred within federal jurisdiction, unless a video was produced.

After that law passed, HSUS attorneys and HSLF legislative staff worked with members of Congress to lay the groundwork for the introduction and passage of the PACT Act. Now, as a result of this law, federal law enforcement and prosecutors will have recourse when the crimes occur on federal property, such as national parks or federal prisons, or in interstate commerce, regardless of whether a video was produced.

We applaud President Trump for signing this bill, and we are deeply grateful to the lead sponsors—Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Reps. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., and former Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas—as well as all the U.S. Senators and Representatives who cosponsored and voted for the PACT Act. We would also like to thank the president's daughter-in-law Lara Trump and animal advocate and entrepreneur Blair Brandt for championing this bill and helping to shepherd it into law. The Senate passed this common-sense bill unanimously twice, in the 114th and 115th Congresses, but the former House Judiciary Chairman, Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., repeatedly blocked it from coming to the floor. This time, with the support of current Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., one of the bill’s original cosponsors, the bill went to the House floor and was unanimously approved.

We are also extremely grateful to you, our supporters, who are the strongest voice on our side. You tirelessly called and wrote to your members of Congress to help pass PACT, and you made all the difference. This law will ensure that those who hurt animals shamelessly, callously, and without remorse do not go scot-free. The passage of a national anti-cruelty law is a historic moment, and it sets the stage for continuing progress in our work to build out federal protections for all animals.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

House approves bill prohibiting the trade of shark fins

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 17:12:23 -0600

The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act (H.R. 737) passed the U.S. House of Representatives today by a vote of 310 v 107. This critical bill, led by Reps. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, D-Northern Mariana Islands, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas, prohibits the commercial trade of shark fins and products containing shark fins in the U.S.

BREAKING NEWS: House votes to end shark fin sales in the U.S.

Wed, 20 Nov 2019 22:08:09 GMT

By Sara Amundson and Kitty Block

The U.S. House just said a decisive and resounding “no” to the terrible shark fin trade, in which fishermen cut the fins off sharks and dump them back into the waters to drown, be eaten alive by other fish, or bleed to death.

Photo by Vanessa Mignon

House members voted 310 to 107 to pass the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, H.R. 737, a bill that would end all commercial trade in the United States, including all imports, exports, trade, distribution and possession for commercial purposes of shark fins and products containing shark fins. Americans overwhelmingly oppose this brutal trade, in which fins from as many as 73 million sharks are traded globally each year. Worse, this trade—driven by a market for shark fin soup—is forcing many shark species toward extinction.

The action next moves to the Senate, where a third of the members have signed on to a parallel bill, S. 877.

While federal law already bans finning in U.S. waters, and 13 states and three U.S. territories have passed laws banning or limiting shark fin sales, our nation continues to be an end market for shark fins, with shark fin soup still appearing on the menus of some restaurants. The United States also serves as a destination for shark fins obtained on the high seas where finning is unregulated, or from countries lacking good policies or enforcement on finning.

That’s why the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund have been working so hard to secure a law that decisively ends this trade in the United States once and for all. By passing such a bill, our nation can reassert its standing as a global leader on the important issue of shark conservation. When the U.S. leads on such efforts, other countries follow, as occurred with the ivory trade.

Sharks are now being killed 30 percent faster than they can reproduce. It is estimated that between 2000 and 2011, 16,815 metric tons of shark fins were traded worldwide. This commerce is unsustainable, and some shark populations have declined by as much as 90% in recent decades, resulting in a crisis not only for sharks themselves but for the balance of ocean ecosystems.

Along with our affiliates stateside and globally through Humane Society International, we have been working to end finning. We helped enact federal laws in 2000 and 2010 that prohibited finning in U.S. waters, and we have worked in a number of states to secure the passage of laws banning or limiting the sale of shark fins, including California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington. We are continuing to work on similar bills in other states. Three U.S. territories—American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands—also have such bans.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Parliament passed a shark fin sales ban for which HSI had vigorously advocated, and we continue to work on ending shark finning and reducing the trade and consumption of shark fins globally.

Today’s victory for sharks in the U.S. House is a proud moment for those of us who have long sought to strengthen protections for these animals, and we are especially grateful to the bill’s lead sponsors, Reps. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, D-Northern Mariana Islands, and Michael McCaul, R-Texas. We now look to the Senate, where a counterpart bill has been introduced by Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va. In April, the Senate Commerce Committee passed S. 877 with a voice vote, and we are hopeful the bill will soon be brought to the full floor for a vote.

Time is running out for sharks. These iconic predators are important in marine ecosystems and serve as key indicators of ocean health. Declining shark numbers can cause irreversible damage to fragile ocean environments and, ultimately, to our earth. By taking decisive action now, Congress—and our nation—can reverse the tide for this keystone species, and for the ecosystems that depend on them.

Kitty Block is President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States.

Humane Groups and Cosmetics Trade Association Join Together to Support Introduction of Bipartisan Humane Cosmetics Act

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 15:25:07 -0600

The Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society Legislative Fund, and Personal Care Products Council issue the following joint statement on the introduction of the Humane Cosmetics Act in the U.S. Senate

Bill to end animal testing for cosmetics introduced in Congress with support from industry leaders

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 21:24:51 GMT

The movement to end the testing of personal care and beauty products on animals has gained unprecedented momentum in recent years, with three U.S. states, 39 countries, and more than a thousand manufacturers abandoning this outdated and unnecessary practice. Today, Congress took an important step toward ending cosmetics animal testing in all of the United States, with the introduction of the Humane Cosmetics Act.

Photo courtesy of iStock Photo

The bill would, with certain exceptions, end all animal testing for cosmetic products and ingredients in the United States and prohibit the import of cosmetics that have been tested on animals anywhere else in the world. The United States is one of the world’s largest cosmetics markets and this bill has the potential to spare the lives of thousands of mice, rabbits, rats and guinea pigs.

Although versions of the Humane Cosmetics Act have been introduced in past Congresses, we are especially optimistic it will succeed this time because there is unprecedented support for passing it from the cosmetics industry itself. In an exciting development, our Humane Society Legislative Fund and Humane Society of the United States teams worked with the Personal Care Products Council, the leading national trade association representing cosmetic and personal care products companies, to propose language for the bill in both its House and Senate versions.

Passing a law banning cosmetics testing would put us on par with many other nations globally who have, working in cooperation with Humane Society International, already passed laws banning or limiting the use of animal tests for cosmetics, including India, New Zealand, South Korea, Guatemala, Australia and all countries in the European Union. Multinational cosmetics companies must already comply with the laws in these countries to sell products there, and, starting January 2020, they must also comply with laws banning the sales of cosmetics newly tested on animals in California, Nevada and Illinois.

This cruelty-free surge is driven by consumers who are increasingly scanning store shelves for products not tested on animals. Cosmetics producers have been only too happy to comply, and already more than 1,000 brands in North America have committed to producing cosmetics that are free of new animal testing.

When creating their products, these brands can choose from the thousands of safe ingredients already available, or use advanced scientific alternative test methods and new technologies that are often more reliable, efficient and cost-effective than animal tests. And as the global market for non-animal tests expands, new and improved methods will continue to be developed, leading to safer cosmetics without harming animals.

In recent years, our #BeCrueltyFree campaign has partnered with global beauty giants, including Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Avon and the Estée Lauder Companies, to ban animal testing for cosmetics in all major global beauty markets by 2023. We’ve worked together to standardize legislation to end cosmetics animal testing, share information on alternative testing methods, and invest in education and training for scientists.

For many of us here at the HSUS and HSLF, getting the Humane Cosmetics Act across the finish line has been a long-cherished personal and career goal. My own journey with ending cosmetics animal testing began as far back as 1988, when I worked at the Doris Day Animal League to secure the passage of state bills to require the use of alternatives to animal tests for industrial chemicals, cosmetics and other ingredients in California, New Jersey and New York as well as lobbying on important federal bills on the issue. These included measures to end to the cruel lethal dose 50 tests, where animals were forced to ingest a chemical until 50 percent of them died, and a state bill in California to ban the Draize rabbit eye test for cosmetics. In 1990, I helped draft the Corporate Standard of Compassion for Animals. This standard for “cruelty free” cosmetics was subsequently adopted by the Leaping Bunny Program rolled out in 1996 by DDAL, the HSUS, and six other animal protection organizations, working with key members of the cosmetics industry, including Paul Mitchell and The Body Shop. In 2000, I was pleased to help win enactment of the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), and in 2016, to secure provisions in the reauthorization of the Toxic Substances Control Act that set the stage for replacing the use of live animals in chemical testing, as well as appropriations over the past many years to provide increased resources to make this research possible.

Cosmetics tests on animals are not only unnecessary, and ineffective; they involve serious animal suffering. Animals used in these tests have substances forced down their throats, dripped into their eyes, or smeared onto their skin, and they are left to suffer for days or weeks without pain relief. Our thanks to Sens. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Reps. Don Beyer, D-Va., Vern Buchanan, R-Fla., Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., Paul Tonko, D-N.Y., and Ken Calvert, R-Calif., for introducing this important bill designed to bring our nation’s laws into alignment with the wishes of the majority of American consumers. For our part, we promise to push with all our might and passion to make this the Congress that ends the ugliness of cosmetics animal testing.

Please take a moment to reach out to your legislators and ask them to support this important bill!