2021 was a huge year for animal welfare. From moving Expedia to stop selling dolphin tickets to seeing France ban the use of wild animals in circuses to the work we’ve done with animals suffering through the Brazil wildfires, we are so proud of what we’ve done to protect animals this year. Of course, we couldn’t do any of this without your aid and support. Here’s how you can help us help animals in 2022.
While it may seem unhelpful to target farmed animals when aiming to help wildlife, these issues go hand-in-hand. Factory farming impacts wild animals by contributing significantly to global warming, contaminating ecosystems, and taking land inhabited by wildlife to use for more farmland. Reforming the farming system in the US would help animals all over the world.
The global wildlife trade hurts animals, but did you know that handling wildlife hurts humans, too, when zoonotic diseases are passed to them from animals? The Preventing Future Pandemics Act aims to prevent another Covid-19-style outbreak by closing down wildlife markets and ending the international trade in wildlife for human consumption. A win for us and the animals.
Nonhuman primates don’t belong in households, plain and simple. This bill would prohibit the private possession of primates, protecting these sensitive, intelligent animals from exploitation and abuse.
PetSmart contributes to the cruel multibillion-dollar trade that exploits wild animals on an industrial scale. The lizards, snakes, and other wild animals sold in PetSmart are not pets and should not be marketed as such. Urge PetSmart to stop the sale of reptiles and amphibians in its stores to help protect wild animals from the global wildlife trade.
Big cats such as lions and tigers are wild animals and belong in the wild. Yet today, there are more tigers in captivity in the United States than in the wild. The Big Cat Public Safety Act amends the Captive Wild Safety Act to prohibit the private possession of lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs, jaguars, cougars, or any hybrids of these species.
6. Advocate for Laws in Your Community Banning the Sale of Wild Animals
Millions of animals are suffering as a result of the sale of wild animals for use as pets, and it’s also fueling our global biodiversity crisis. Download our publication, “Banning Retail Sales of Wild Animals: A Toolkit for Animal Advocates,” to learn how to advocate for a local law that prohibits the sale of wild animals like birds, reptiles, and amphibians in your local pet stores.
Given what we know about how factory farming hurts wildlife, a clear step to protecting wild animals is eating less meat. The less we support factory farming, the better life is for farmed and wild animals.
We can’t wait to see what you do to support and protect wildlife in 2022!
