Animals & Politics

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

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.

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.