American Humane Report Details Efforts to Product Animals During Pandemic Year

American Humane, the country’s first national humane organization, has released its annual Impact Report, detailing major accomplishments made during the past 12 months in furthering its 144-year-old work in ensuring the safety, welfare and well-being of animals, as well as promoting and nurturing the life-changing, life-saving bonds between animals and people. The report is available here.

In just the past year, American Humane programs directly touched the lives of some 1 billion animals around the globe and continues to win top honors from leading charity watchdogs for effectiveness, efficiency and transparency. Among the major successes revealed in the report:

• The American Humane Rescue program saved, sheltered and fed 1,000,000 animals in desperate need, including those abandoned to shelters during the Covid-19 pandemic and those affected by the California wildfires, hurricanes Laura and Sally and cruelty cases. American Humane also led the successful charge to adopt “pandemic pets” during the crisis, making a difference in the lives of both people and animals.

• Following the discovery that the pandemic began as a result of the inhumane treatment of animals in unhygienic, unregulated “wet markets,” American Humane released its “New Deal for Animals, People and the World We Share” to thought leaders globally, calling for the end of the dog, cat and exotic meat trade, along with other forms of abuse.

• As the world faces what scientists are calling the “Sixth Mass Extinction,” the American Humane Conservation program helped protect more than a third of a million remarkable and endangered animals living in the world’s zoos, aquariums and conservation centers under our science-based humane standards.

• The American Humane Farm program worked to improve the lives of some one billion animals living on farms and ranches, helping to ensure adequate space, air and water quality, proper temperature, humane treatment and the ability to express natural behaviors. American Humane now certifies 90 percent of all cage-free eggs in the United States.

• The American Humane “No Animals Were Harmed” program successfully kept some 50,000 animals safe on film and television productions around the world.

• American Humane’s Lois Pope LIFE Center for Military Affairs continued the organization’s 105-year legacy of supporting the U.S. military, veterans and military animals by reuniting retired military dogs with their former handlers, providing free specialty veterinary care to K-9 veterans and training dogs in need of forever homes as lifesaving service animals for veterans struggling to cope with post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injury – saving lives on both ends of healing leashes.

• American Humane reached billions of people around the globe with lifesaving information and humane education tools to help build a better world for the most vulnerable among us.  

Wealth of Awards for Good Stewardship

American Humane has also earned much recognition for its good stewardship of funds and efficiency in turning charitable donations into effective action with 91.3 cents of every dollar spent during the past year going directly into life-changing, life-saving programs. American Humane was awarded Charity Navigator’s highest “4-Star” rating for the third time in a row (something achieved by only a tiny fraction of the 1.5 million charities in the United States), has been named a “Top-Rated Charity” with an “A” rating by CharityWatch, was called a “Best Charity” to support by Consumer Reports and is among the fewer than one-tenth of one percent of US charities to make the Better Business Bureau’s “Wise Giving Alliance” list.

“Since 1877, American Humane has been there for animals in their times of greatest need,” said Dr. Robin Ganzert, president and CEO of American Humane. “We were there following the Civil War when we were founded to fight for the humane treatment of all living creatures. We were there during World War I when we deployed to rescue some one million war horses wounded on the bloody battlefields of Europe. We were there during the Great Depression and countless other disasters during the past century . . . and we were there during the global Covid-19 pandemic to help the vulnerable among us. With the help of the public, our dedicated volunteers and the support of our remarkably generous donors, we are proud to continue our legacy of providing caring, compassion and hope to more of those in need than ever before.”

Read American Humane’s full 2021 “Impact Report” here, which covers achievements during its fiscal year running July 1, 2020 through June 30, 2021 and or click here for more information.