Friends of Animals

08/27/2026

We’ve been getting a deluge of questions since last week when the NY Times published an expose about America's protected wild horses being sent to slaughter. Here, FoA’s Wildlife Law Program Director Jennifer Best dispels the myths the BLM perpetuates about wild horses. For instance, they ARE NOT overpopulated—they’ve lost 41 percent of their habitat (20 million acres) to the greedy meat industry since the Wild Free-roaming Wild Horses and Burros Act of 1971 was passed!

08/26/2026

Thank you to the Hartford Courant for running our oped. Nothing spreads “bearanoia” faster than the type of misinformation that was spread about an incident with a black bear and a dog in Torrington, CT earlier this summer. The story that was told was not the whole story, and that was keeping us up at night! So we set the record straight, while offering some education on how to avoid human-caused interactions with bears. Which the media doesn't always do a good job of doing! You can read the oped by clicking on the headline below:

Sadly, nothing spreads “bearanoia” faster than misinformation.

08/24/2026

Across the US, people are horrified that this country’s beloved, protected wild horses are going to slaughter, which was revealed in Dave Philip’s expose on the front page of the NY Times Saturday. But these atrocities are not new—Friends of Animals has been railing against the Bureau of Land Management and suing the agency to stop roundups for over a decade. In 2015, FoA President Priscilla Feral and staff members arrived in Montana to give the BLM, which is wedded to the meat industry, the “Worst Government Agency” award. There are a measly 195 wild horses left in Montana. LET THAT SINK IN. Stay tuned in the upcoming days for info about our current litigation, legal victories that have halted roundups, and myths & truths about wild horses in general. Please donate to support our work to save wild horses: https://form-renderer-app.donorperfect.io/give/friends-of-animals/foa-general-donation

08/20/2026

It’s business as usual for the corrupt Bureau of Land Management, which is wedded to the meat industry! We knew about some of the BLM’s atrocious, criminal behavior from revelations in 2015, but today’s New York Times expose by David PhilIipps sickens us at Friends of Animals and fortifies our ongoing legal efforts to shut down all wild horse roundups.

Every single violent effort to capture wild horses dooms them, depriving them of their freedoms and lives on public lands.

Anyone who eats meat enables the carnage as ranchers for the meat industry continue to call the shots. The Trump regime's Project 2025 made it clear he’d drive a bulldozer through the already existing loophole, yet voters blindly supported him.

You can read the NY Times piece here: https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2026%2F08%2F20%2Fus%2Ftrump-wild-horses-legal-loophole-slaughter.html%3Funlocked_article_code%3D1.61A.v8Pz._qKpmVx0CT7s%26smid%3Durl-share&data=05%7C02%7Cnrivard%40friendsofanimals.org%7Cff668d166b7548e3aef408defeb14db1%7Cc2b8791076f9480f955b89af7a2643c7%7C0%7C0%7C639228234637734648%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=mTb61bfCt4MAAg8zWAs%2B38La4IqKueuajdVu6058x0U%3D&reserved=0

08/20/2026

We're cheering a federal judge who, on Thursday, blocked a deal that would’ve allowed a road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

The planned road would’ve cut directly through Izembek’s wetlands that some 200 plus species call home but was blocked after the judge ruled that the current administration violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to study the effects of construction on vulnerable wildlife.

friendsofanimals.org/cheers-federal-judge-blocks-deal-that-wouldve-allowed-a-road-to-be-built-through-alaskan-wildlife-refuge/

08/18/2026

In July, the US FWS and NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule removing the Endangered Species Act’s long-standing regulatory definition of “harm” despite FoA's steadfast opposition.

Since 1975, that definition has recognized that destroying the habitat endangered species rely on to feed, breed, and raise their young can be just as harmful as directly killing them—a principle the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed in 1995. FoA submitted comments on the proposed regulation to help build the record against this rollback.

Now, we are asking our supporters to contact your members of Congress and urge them to support H.R. 9901, which reestablishes strong ESA protections.

Read more about the new rule, and what you can do to help stop it: friendsofanimals.org/we-need-your-help-asking-congress-to-reign-in-this-administrations-attacks-on-the-esa/

08/17/2026

“In the long run, we don’t think it’s going to help any species, and in the immediate term, it is cruel and will result in hundreds of thousands of owls being shot down from their homes” said FoA Wildlife Law Program Director, Jennifer Best, of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's barred owl 'management' strategy, in a comment to Mother Jones.

The service aims to gun down upwards of half a million barred owls over the next 30 years since they've been mislabeled as "invasive.

Read the full Mother Jones article to learn more about the horrific plan and the legal action FoA is taking to stop it: https://friendsofanimals.org/should-we-kill-one-kind-of-owl-to-save-another/

08/14/2026

Ospreys, who were once on the brink of extinction, are hailed as a conservation success story since rebounding from the days of DDT.

But researchers and advocates have noticed a growing, concerning trend: ospreys appear to be in decline.

More: https://friendsofanimals.org/ospreys-send-another-warning-message/

08/13/2026

In January, Friends of Animals went to court to defend Utah’s prairie dogs, and on Aug. 12 a panel of Tenth Circuit judges unanimously awarded us a victory! This case involved tension between the relentless local drive for development and preservation of an animal species threatened with extinction. Read about our victory here! https://friendsofanimals.org/utah-prairie-dogs-win-major-court-victory-thanks-to-friends-of-animals/

08/12/2026

Straight from the horses mouth! A former NYC carriage horse driver whose family owned Chateau Stables calls for shutting down “the dangerous, relic of a trade” NOW in a City and State New York oped! She writes: “The owners and drivers I still speak to are not blinded by nostalgia. They tell me flatly: It’s not like it used to be. It’s not safe. They are contending with noise, congestion and an unpredictable environment. In all my years driving, I never saw this many accidents happen so often. At some point, you must accept that the conditions have changed so much, the practice itself is no longer safe or sustainable.”

The truth is the carriage trade was never safe for horses! That’s why we are advocating for Intro 943, which would phase out the city’s longstanding and controversial horse carriage industry altogether by June 1, 2028, stopping new licenses from being issued immediately. It currently has 29 sponsors (it only needs 26 votes to pass) and we have heard it could be voted on in September. We have told legislators that we support adding language to the bill that creates a fund to enable the city to facilitate a buyout of the horses from the owners and help with placement fees at the sanctuaries who need them. We said we could contribute $25,000 to start and invited the TWU to engage with legislators and us on this. And we expect other groups to step up too.

Read Anita McGill’s oped here:

In all my years of driving a horse carriage, I never saw this many accidents happen so often.