The Humane Society of The United States HQ

Stop puppy mills: A puppy mill is a high-volume breeding facility that churns out puppies for profit, typically housing pups and their mothers in substandard conditions with little or no veterinary care. The majority of puppies sold in pet stores and online are from puppy mills. Our current focus is on ending the sale of puppies in pet stores.

End the use of fur in fashion: Millions of rabbits, foxes, mink and other wild animals spend their entire lives in cramped cages, only to be gassed or electrocuted for their fur. In the wild, animals are caught in crippling leghold traps for days without food or water--all in the name of fashion. Our current focus is on ending the sale of fur in the U.S.

End cosmetic animal testing and trade: Animals are still suffering and dying to test shampoo, mascara and other cosmetic products. Rabbits, rats, guinea pigs and mice have substances forced down their throats, dripped into their eyes or smeared onto their skin before they are killed. Our near-term goal is to secure bans on cosmetic animal testing and trade covering 50% of the global cosmetic market.

End trophy hunting: Each year, hundreds of thousands of animals are killed by trophy hunters, whose primary motivation is simply to obtain animal parts for display and bragging rights. Trophy hunters use cruel methods like baiting and hounding, shoot animals in captive hunts and participate in gruesome wildlife killing contests. Our current focus is to reduce the number of African lions, leopards and elephants being imported as trophies into the U.S.

End the use of veal crates, gestation crates and cages for egg-laying hens: On factory farms, egg-laying hens, baby calves and mother pigs are kept in cages and crates so small they can barely move. Our near-term goal is to reach the milestone of the majority of egg-laying hens in the U.S. being raised cage-free.

Expand our capacity to respond to large-scale cruelty and natural disasters: Our Animal Rescue Team works with law enforcement agencies to investigate the worst cases of animal abuse nationwide. Every year, we rescue thousands of animals from puppy mills, animal fighting operations, natural disasters and other large-scale situations of cruelty and neglect. Our current focus is to expand our capacity so we can provide even more support to local agencies in the future.

The HSUS addresses the root cause of animal suffering, which requires changing the legal framework governing the treatment of animals and the practices of large-scale industries, as well as winning the hearts and minds of the American public.

Strengthening public policy and enforcement: We’re strengthening legal protections for animals at the local, state and national levels in the United States, and in a growing number of countries through our global arm, Humane Society International. We defend those victories in court and press for robust enforcement of existing policies.

Improving corporate policy: We work with the world’s biggest food and apparel companies, cosmetics manufacturers and leaders in other industries to improve the treatment of animals. We make the case that caring about animal welfare is good for business, but we also use scorecards, media coverage and other channels for evaluating and encouraging further progress in the industries we target.

Training and capacity building: We invest in activities that lift up the whole animal protection movement, engaging and training volunteers, animal advocates, shelter and rescue professionals, educators and law enforcement officers across the country on issues like investigating and prosecuting animal cruelty, expanding access to veterinary care, resolving human-wildlife conflicts and effective citizen lobbying. We offer HumanePro, a comprehensive resource for anyone who works or volunteers with animals, from shelter staffers to veterinary professionals, including our annual Animal Care Expo, the largest conference for animal sheltering and rescue professionals.

Rescue and direct care: We and our affiliates provide hands-on care for thousands of animals every year, caring for horses, companion animals and wildlife. We respond to major cruelty cases and natural disasters, arrange veterinary care and spay/neuter services for pets in underserved U.S. communities and much more.

Education and awareness: The HSUS reaches tens of millions of people through its website and social media platforms, award-winning videos and magazines, training and educational conferences for animal advocates, national media outreach and more. We’re driving the wider conversation around animals, encouraging everyone to join us in creating a culture that lives up to the promise of our name: A humane society.

We have developed internal expertise around challenges facing specific types of animals, as well as expertise in the tactics we employ to achieve lasting change. But our staff members are our greatest strength, including:

Subject-matter experts: We employ staff specialists working on issues facing farm animals, companion animals, wildlife and animals used in research.

Corporate campaigners: Our teams include experts in corporate campaigns, who have brokered agreements with companies and institutions to make food supply chains more humane, increase plant-based options in institutional dining, go fur-free, commit to alternatives to animal testing, adopt non-lethal management strategies and more.

State public policy experts: Many laws that affect animals are generated at the state and local levels, so our state directors work to advance legislation, develop coalitions and engage with volunteers and partners in support of our policy goals. They also support the work of local humane societies and carry out public awareness and other initiatives designed to advance our priorities.

Attorneys: An in-house team of lawyers provides legislative, regulatory and litigation support to our priority programs and campaigns. The members of our animal protection legal team are responsible for helping to draft legislation and administrative rules, defending laws when they are challenged in court, submitting petitions to drive agency action, and proactively bringing lawsuits to support animal protection interests.

Investigators: Oftentimes the most insidious forms of animal abuse happen behind closed doors and out of the public view. For those situations, our team of investigators work to expose animal abuse and suffering through undercover investigations at pet stores, wildlife killing contests, slaughterhouses and more.

Outreach and training experts: We are committed to strengthening the animal protection movement and engaging more people in our work. Our outreach team provides training and resources to government agencies, animal shelters, veterinarians and individual advocates and volunteers to make sure they have the tools they need to improve the lives of animals.

Volunteers: Our robust volunteer infrastructure includes hundreds of volunteers trained and ready to engage on priority issues. Our volunteers are organized by congressional district and play a leadership role in our advocacy efforts.

Communications experts: Our communications teams prepare and present compelling stories about animals with the goal of increasing awareness, influencing hearts and minds, and inspiring our membership to take action.

In 2022, most of our work returned to pre-COVID levels as travel limitations ended, legislatures resumed regular activities and in-person events once again became possible. Several major events required us to utilize all our resources to meet enormous challenges for animals. Here are some of our biggest areas of progress on our strategic priorities:

Stop puppy mills: New York became the sixth state to ban retail puppy sales, a huge step that affects 66 pet stores—10% of all puppy-selling pet stores in the U.S. We supported passage of ordinances in 7 key localities as well as a California bill to prohibit the use of financing in sales of dogs and cats—a practice that involves charging buyers extraordinarily high interest rates.

End the use of fur in fashion: We helped two more U.S. cities—Plymouth and Cambridge, Massachusetts—ban new fur sales, bringing the number of existing bans to 12 cities plus California. After working with the HSUS, Dolce&Gabbana announced that it is going fur-free; Kohl’s also announced a new fur-free policy.

End animal cosmetic testing and trade: With our help, New York and Louisiana went “cruelty free” by passing laws that prevent the sale of cosmetics newly tested on animal, and we marshalled crucial support for the Humane Cosmetics Act, a federal bill to end the use of animals in cosmetics testing, including an endorsement from Whole Foods Market.

End the use of veal crates, gestation crates and cages for egg-laying hens: We helped Arizona become the 10th state to ban cages in the egg industry and mandate that all eggs produced and/or sold in the state are cage-free; we mounted a robust legal defense of California’s Proposition 12, a similar law protecting hens, pigs and calves, against an agribusiness challenge at the U.S. Supreme Court; and The Cheesecake Factory, CVS and Walgreens all reached their goal of being 100% cage-free.

End trophy hunting: In response to our lawsuit, a federal judge reinstated Endangered Species Act protections for wolves throughout most of the lower 48 states, sparing hundreds of animals from being slaughtered by trophy hunters; we also won an important legal victory for Alaska’s wildlife when a federal appeals court upheld a regulation prohibiting the cruel practice of bear baiting in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.

Respond to large-scale cruelty and natural disasters: We completed a historic operation to transport 3,776 beagles from a mass breeding facility for research dogs in Virginia after the U.S. Department of Justice found evidence of multiple Animal Welfare Act violations at the facility; more than 120 of our shelter and rescue partner groups stepped up to help, ensuring the beagles have a chance to find the loving homes they deserve. We also helped rescue more than 70 dogs from a dogfighting operation in South Carolina, 62 dogs from a suspected neglect case in New Mexico and deployed to Kentucky to help the Kentucky River Regional Animal Shelter after serious flooding.