The 2018 Humane Scorecard is here!

The 2018 Humane Scorecard covers the second session of the 115th Congress where we fended off some serious attacks and achieved significant victories for animals through the FY18 omnibus appropriations deal signed into law in March and the farm bill enacted in December.

Animals need every voice they can get this year. And yours matters so much. We hope you use the Humane Scorecard as a handy tool to see where your federal legislators stand on some of our movement’s key policy issues. If your legislators performed well and were re-elected, we hope you contact them and encourage them to keep up the good work. If they dropped the ball let them know you want them to do better for animals in the new Congress. And if you’ve got freshmen legislators representing you, reach out and urge them to make animal protection a priority. You can find their contact information here.

Thanks for helping us make progress for animals in this last session of Congress. There's a lot of work that lies ahead in 2019. We’re grateful to have the help of supporters like you across the country.

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PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)

Every living being deserves to live a happy, free, and safe life on this planet. According to Don Lichterman, who works every day to raise awareness to defend against animal cruelty says, animals raised for food have the right to live a life that is free from cruelty and abuse. Most of the around 10 billion homestead creatures brought every year up in the U.S. endure in conditions that customers would not acknowledge if they could see them. Majority of our consumer products including milk, meat, and eggs originate from industrial farms where effectiveness trumps welfare—and creatures are paying the cost.

Therefore, it is our responsibility to take an attempt in order to bring a change in society by protecting animals from cruelty and factory farming.

Now the question is how one can bring a change to this planet? The answer is – combine effort of individuals.

Let’s explore few ways to stop animal abuse and factory farming with Don Lichterman.

Sign Petitions

You must not underestimate the power of people. Many motivated, well organized, and passionate groups out there who are working towards creating laws and awareness to end the factory farming. By making a move and signing relevant petitions, we can join hands together and demonstrate officials, government divisions, and organizations that a majority of the society are against it. Petitions are to a great degree successful instruments in making a difference, so ensure you get involved.

Support Sustainable Action Network (SAN)

Sustainable Action Network (SAN) are among the leading non-profit organizations in the fight against animal cruelty, providing care and rehabilitation to animals directly influenced by the business, and in addition, making instructive assets and learning environments. By supporting SAN, going support them on social media platform, you can spread the message and bring about the change.

Join Hands With Welfare Groups

Support animal rights and welfare groups or local trade organizations local campaigns which are working with the motive to bring about direct changes in your region. By encouraging local farmers markets as well as shops and organizations which likewise share your perspectives, you can move others to blacklist factory farm products. Leafleting, mindfulness days, Q&A sessions and different workshops can be exceptionally successful at alarming individuals to the specific cause.

Spread Awareness

Numerous individuals have not been legitimately educated about the issues encompassing factory farming yet, as it's an issue which is avoided standard consideration. You could be the impetus for change among your companions, family, and partners by instructing them. This doesn't mean lecturing them about what terrible individuals they are for purchasing production line cultivated meat, however rather carefully bringing the issues up in a way that they may relate to.

Final Words

Don Lichterman says, Factory farming is not going to disappear in the first attempt, but by joining hands together, we can make a change in this world by removing the suffering of factory farmed animals.

More Animal & Wildlife Welfare Related Issues:

This Tradition Kills Up to 100,000 Dogs Each Year

In Spain, the end of the hunting season is just around the corner, and while Spanish game might be breathing a sigh of relief, the dogs that helped the hunters get their catch are now the ones facing a gruesome death. In many parts of rural Spain, galgos — the Spanish version of a greyhound — are used to hunt wild hares. Each hunter buys from 10 to 70 each to last them during the hunting season. That amounts to thousands of dogs being used for the sport. Each year, these galgos are expected to perform by catching hare — bringing pride and glory to their owner. But at the end of the season, the dogs that don't perform end up abandoned or killed.

This Cruel Pig Slaughter Festival Needs to End Now

The Nem Thuong Pig Slaughter Festival in Vietnam has been condemned by animal rights activists for a long time due to its heinous nature. In 2015, the Vietnamese government banned it due to that pressure. However, it turns out the festival continues on, just in a smaller fashion. This year (2019) the festival will happen on February 5 at the lunar new year if we don't stop it! During the festival, pigs are carried for miles with people feeding them cookies and water.Then, ropes are tied to each of their limbs and they are pulled in four different directions while someone takes a sword and either cuts them in half or decapitates them.It's truly a tragic and cruel activity.

Please sign the petition to ask Vietnamese authorities to actually end this torturous festival!

Legal Loopholes Are Giving Poachers Permission to Hunt Protected Birds

Thousands of birds fly over Malta during the migratory season.
And thousands are killed, both legally and illegally.Illegal killings amount to more than 200,000 birds per year — and these are only the documented ones.

Legally, birds that are protected worldwide (including storks) can be shot and caught in nets in Malta, by taking advantage of loopholes that allow hunters to collect birds for "traditional" and "cultural" practices. The black stork is an extremely rare bird and people have been shooting them, using these loopholes.

Tell Pebble Beach to Get Their Golf Balls Out of Our Ocean

Pebble Beach is world-renowned for being one of the most beautiful golf courses on Earth. But right off the coast, where the links turn into the sea, that paradise has been lost.

Two years ago, a young 16-year-old freediver named Alex Weber was swimming off the coast in Carmel Bay. Weber says she had been diving since she was a young child, so the underwater world was nothing new to her. But this time she saw something she didn't expect. Instead of sand covering the seafloor, she saw nothing but golf balls — thousands and thousands of them. Sign the petition to tell PBC and other coastal and river golf courses to clean up their mess.

Stop the Cruel and Unnecessary Wolf Hunts in Norway! Despite global opposition, the survival of Norway's endangered population of wolves is once again being threatened. Plans to allow the mass killing of the country's 60 remaining wolves spells out certain extinction for the species. Please urge Norway's Ministry of Climate and Environment to end wolf hunts once and for all. TAKE ACTION

M-44 "cyanide bombs" are small metal cylinders that are staked into the ground and covered with bait. These sweet-smelling traps lure coyotes, wolves, foxes and other unsuspecting wildlife — then cruelly shoot sodium-cyanide powder into their faces. The result is horrible poisoning followed by death.

Fortunately the Environmental Protection Agency is at last reviewing the use of these controversial devices, and now's our chance to shut them down.

Send a letter to the EPA insisting that it protect wildlife and ban the use of sodium cyanide in M-44s.

These devices are a favorite of USDA's Wildlife Services, the rogue government wildlife-killing program that used them to kill more than 13,000 animals last year. These indiscriminate killers also pose a high risk to endangered animals such as grizzly bears, lynx and wolves. They've killed numerous family dogs and even injured a child.

With intentional and accidental deaths stacking up, now's the time for swift, decisive action.

Tell the EPA to ban this deadly poison once and for all.

The dirty business of killing wildlife never stops.

USDA's Wildlife Services is at work every day — government shutdown or not — to wipe out wildlife with some of the most gruesome methods possible. Body-crushing snares. Exploding poison capsules. Gunners with high-powered rifles shooting from the air.

It's a senseless, cruel program that slaughters coyotes, bears, wolves, foxes, beavers and hundreds of other species. In 2017 Wildlife Services killed more than 1.3 million native animals.

It has to stop. Please give today to the Center's Stop Wildlife Services Fund so we can keep up the fight.

The Center has been battling Wildlife Services for years with a targeted, strategic campaign.

County by county, state by state, we'll do whatever it takes to stop this ruthless killing program. We've already shut Wildlife Services out of Shasta County, Calif., where 35,000 animals per year were being ruthlessly slaughtered. We banned the killing of beavers, minks, muskrats and otters by Wildlife Services in Oregon, saving hundreds of animals per year. We shut down much of the killing of mountain lions and bears in Colorado.

And we've won in the courts to save ocelots in Arizona and Texas from being mercilessly caught in bone-snapping snares and traps set by Wildlife Services.

Just this morning we sued Wildlife Services for its killing program in Wyoming.

This is a fight that we can win. We have to. The death tally from 2017 says it all: 357 gray wolves, 552 black bears, 1,001 bobcats, 23,646 beavers and 69,041 coyotes — mostly at the behest of the agriculture industry.

With your help we'll keep stopping Wildlife Services from slaughtering wildlife. Please give today to our Stop Wildlife Services Fund.

Demand False Lashes No One Has to Die For! Velour Lashes, a company which used to exclusively sell mink fur eyelashes has released a brand-new range of vegan alternatives. This is significant step toward the future for animals wish to see — a future where farming, harming and slaughtering animals has become obsolete. Let's encourage Velour Lashes to continue down this path and commit to a full transition of fur-free products! TAKE ACTION

Help This Lonely Gorilla: Tell The Gorilla Foundation to Let Ndume Go Home. Gorillas are highly social animals with complex physical and psychological needs, yet a gorilla named Ndume is being forced to live in a facility without any others of his own kind. Urge The Gorilla Foundation to allow him to be moved to an accredited facility where he would receive expert care and have the opportunity to become integrated into a social group. Take Action For NDume.

Do You Love Helping Dogs? These PETA Action Alerts Are Perfect for You. You care about dogs and would do anything to keep them safe, so we've put together a page detailing simple yet effective ways to help them. Take Action For Dogs.

PETA's Fur Challenge: Unzip the Cruelty Behind Canada Goose. If you're upset that animals are being tortured and killed for fashion accessories, PETA has a challenge for you.TAKE THE #FURCHALLENGE

URGENT: Lobsters' Claws Torn Off, Shells Punctured, and Heads Ripped Off. District Attorney Matthew J. Foster has declined to prosecute horrific cruelty to lobsters at Maine Fair Trade Lobster after PETA obtained eyewitness footage showing workers dismembering fully conscious lobsters by tearing off their claws, puncturing their shells, and ripping their heads off. Tell him that lobsters feel pain and deserve legal protection. Help out Now!

Kate del Castillo Explains That Many Animal Abusers Go On to Harm Humans. People who commit acts of cruelty to animals rarely stop there. That's why actor, activist, and longtime PETA friend Kate del Castillo is urging you to report animal abuse—never be silent! What You Can Do To Help!

PETA Donates Dog Food to Help Federal Workers Affected by the Government Shutdown. PETA employees stepped in to help workers hit by the federal shutdown. Follow PETA on Twitter today to stay up to date on the latest animal rights news, action alerts, videos, and more. Follow Along!Archaic Zoo Model Is Harming Elephants. Hopefully, you have now had a chance to read and share our 15th annual list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants. How is it that elephants, one of the planet's most intelligent, social, and endangered species, came to be the victims of one of history's greatest deceptions? READ MORE

Third Ag-Gag Law Ruled Unconstitutional. In 2017, the Animal Legal Defense Fund led a coalition to challenge Iowa’s Ag-Gag law. Earlier this month, the court ruled in our favor and overturned the law.

2018 U.S. Animal Protection Laws State Rankings Released. Our 13^th annual report ranking the animal protection laws of all 50 states is available online.

Lawsuit Filed Against Pennsylvania Roadside Zoo. The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit against Farmers Inn, a roadside zoo in Sigel, Pennsylvania, for violations of the Endangered Species Act and state animal cruelty laws.

Sale of Foie Gras Illegal in California. On January 7^th, the Supreme Court denied the foie gras industry’s petition challenged California’s landmark law banning the sale of foie gras.

Missing Horses: Illegal Horse Slaughter Round-up Update. We have been flooded with your concerns ever since we published news of an illegal round-up in Palomino Valley, Nevada. Several privately "owned" family horses with guardians are still missing, presumed to have been stolen and then slaughtered. READ MORE

Urge Roger Williams Park Zoo to Give Up Bullhooks. Using a weapon on a captive elephant is blatantly cruel. Unfortunately, this harsh treatment is simply business as usual for one New England zoo. Please urge Roger Williams Park Zoo to stop using bullhooks and to close down its elephant exhibit once and for all. TAKE ACTION

Alert New Congress to Wild Horse and Burro Atrocities! The 2018 mid-term elections created a considerable shift in representation, with nine new members in the U.S. Senate and 93 new members in the U.S. House. Yet, cruel factions still exist in Congress that want to do harm to America's wild horses and burros. With the government shutdown garnering all the attention of Congress, we must act now to let our legislators know they cannot forget wild horses and burros. TAKE ACTION

Join Our Activist Appreciation Month Events! We're so excited to announce our amazing line-up of events for Activist Appreciation Month this February! To honor your activist efforts we've scheduled self-care webinars, activist spotlights, an Ode to Activists poem, and a collaborative international action to save the Amazon Rainforest. Read on to see what we've got in store for you. READ MORE

Don Lichterman
Sunset Corporation of America (SCA)
Sustainable Action Network (SAN)