Feature Article
The shelter director awakens with a sharp intake of breath, looking around frantically. She had the dream again—the nightmare. The one where the reporter called and asked for the shelter’s numbers—how many animals were taken in, how many were healthy, how many were adopted, how many were euthanized?
Feature Article
All of the puppies loaded onto the transport truck in Bowling Green were headed on journeys, leaving Kentucky to find new homes. The April 2014 transport would take them from the South, where puppies are plentiful, to rescues in the Northeast, where higher spay/neuter rates prevail.
Scoop
Crossing borders, confronting injustice
Veteran of El Salvador conflict finds a new mission with Pets for Life in Los Angeles
In a flash
North Carolina photo project helps boost rural shelter adoptions
Mutterings
A round-up of fun, inspiring news tidbits from the animal welfare world.
Sharing spaces
A collaboration between cat and bird advocates demos spaces that keep both species safe
Some kind of wonder-pig
Esther could have spent her life in a gestation crate. Instead, she's a beloved pet and Facebook star.
Trading places
Melbourne event gets workers out of offices, dogs into new homes
Turbocharging pet adoptions and community engagement
What shelters can learn from those cheesy used car salesmen
President's Note
As we usher in a new year, it’s a time to reflect on our progress and look to the challenges ahead. While we work to enhance and deepen the engagement of our adherents and supporters, it’s also critical that we draw in new supporters and invite people of conscience to make the right choices and join our vital cause.
101 Department
"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?” OK, so your adoption application probably isn’t reminiscent of the McCarthy era. But what are you asking your potential adopters—and why?
Rescue Central
Would you adopt a 2-year-old border collie mix to a single guy, without a fenced yard, whose job keeps him traveling and who has no experience with the breed? How about if that guy liked the dog, but wasn’t quite sure if she was a good fit for him?
Mouthpieces
This version of the Mouthpiece encourages people who are feeding community cats to visit The Humane Society of the United States' website for more information on low-cost or free spay/neuter. Download this Mouthpiece to help curb the number of unsterilized cats in your community.
Shelter Medicine
If you’re around a lot of cats, you’ve probably seen it: Suddenly, one of them stops what she’s doing and begins violently scratching one of her ears with a hind foot, then shakes her head so hard that her ears flap, and then begins to scratch again.
Unforgettable
Block was part of a 2012 cruelty case. He and his “brother” had infected bite wounds and were tied up with chains for collars. At the shelter they both healed after many months of treatment and care and went up for adoption. Block was one of the all-time shelter staff and volunteer favorites. He was a lovable, goofy, big teddy-bear kind of a boy.
Mouthpieces
This version of the Mouthpiece encourages people who are feeding community cats to contact your organization for help with trapping and sterilization. Download this Mouthpiece to help curb the number of unsterilized cats in your community.
Magazine Article
At a time of life when most people are savoring a more leisurely pace, Harold Sims of Cullowhee, North Carolina, is busier than ever and has no intention of slowing down.
Magazine Article
I came to the Humane Society of the United States in 2014 after a decade (more if you count those years I spent as a kid sitting in cat rooms and walking dogs way too big for me) overseeing operations at animal shelters. I wouldn’t say I was particularly excited about or motivated to fit policy into my daily workload of caring for homeless pets—until I worked for an animal shelter that was located in a city with breed-specific legislation, flawed policies that ban certain types of dogs based on their physical appearance.
Magazine Article
To see Teddy and Millie now—playful and friendly, outgoing and affectionate— you’d never guess what they’ve endured in their short lives. As part of an unnecessary test commissioned by Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva Agriscience), the beagles were force-fed a pesticide every day for more than seven months at a laboratory in Michigan.
Magazine Article
Vinnie Van Gogh, a reticent feline, spent four months at Dakin Humane Society before his photo appeared on the shelter’s website with the headline “The Socially Awkward Cat for the Socially Awkward Adopter.”
“Seriously all this guy requires is a couch and someone to give him his daily necessities,” the write-up by the Springfield, Massachusetts, shelter read. “Take him home, and have a perfect buddy for all those times that going out is just not worth the effort. He understands.”
Magazine Article
Two leaders in the animal welfare field, Washington, D.C.-based Humane Rescue Alliance and New Jersey’s St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, announced a merger in early July to create what’s believed to be the first organization of its kind in the country.
As a result of this unique combination—two community-based, but regional-focused, animal welfare groups working across state borders—the joint organization has more resources to make a bigger impact in the areas it serves and beyond.
Magazine Article
If you watched the Golden Globes back in 2016, you couldn’t miss her: Collecting a Golden Globe for best actress in a television series, musical or comedy, Rachel Bloom was visibly ecstatic, motor-mouthed and breathless, practically leaping from the screen.
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