UPDATES

• NY A 5850 that will ban the use of kangaroos and wallabies in animal performances with no exceptions save for AZA institutions. There is a coalition of NY facilities and businesses that do outreach programs and have petting zoos in NY fairs working together to oppose this bill. We need all facets of the industry to help us oppose this bill. If you need further information or talking points please let me know.

• NY A 11629 that will ban the use of live fish as prizes in any fair or carnival. Again we could use some big voices in opposition. If you need more details or help formulating your letter/argument please let me know.

• USDA APHIS Request for Comment - Animal Care; Standards for Birds Not Bred for Use in Research Under the Animal Welfare Act - Revision to and extension of approval of an information collection. Comments are due 10/19/26

IN THE NEWS

Fair leaders take zoo precautions

Neighbor with 30 monkeys fights ordinance that would ban her sanctuary | Exclusive - AOL

USDA inspections find multiple violations at Houston-area aquarium and animal preserve | khou.com

‘They're still there': Activists warn of more mink raids after break-in at Oregon farm

Staying One Step Ahead: Inside the Evolving Playbook of Animal Rights Activists - Pork Business

Hundreds of America's wild horses reportedly sent to slaughter under Trump | Humane World for Animals - Here is what HSUS and Kitty Block conveniently omit about the management of wild horses
In the mid-2000s, the Humane Society of the United States (now Humane World for Animals) led successful lobbying and legal efforts that, together with state bans and congressional appropriations riders defunding USDA inspections, forced the last U.S. commercial horse slaughter plants (TX & IL) to shutter in 2007. All remaining commercial demand shifted to live export for slaughter in Mexico and Canada. This of course made transport times longer, almost all of which occur outside of American welfare standards. There have been documented problems with fitness, handling, and conditions at foreign facilities along with reports of neglect and abandonment all happening outside of our jurisdiction and thus our ability to stop. The declining prices of lower-value horses turned into the bottom falling out of low and middle value horses; ordinary pleasure, working, and surplus horses lost a market that gave unwanted animals at least some residual value. Whatever demand left after that incentivized funneling horses into the export pipeline (with some areas even seeing an uptick of horse theft). Meanwhile, our wild horses and burros on public lands have continuously exceeded sustainable levels, leading to expensive operations to corral them; some of these animals enter the same export pipeline via kill pens. This HWA article highlights a 2025 uptick in BLM sales and frames it as a betrayal by this administration, while omitting the organization's key role in doing away with domestic processing options, the decades of structural constraints that followed, the ecological pressures of unmanaged overpopulation, and problems under previous administrations.