Your Summary of Our Latest Animal News and Information

A Louisiana flashpoint highlights the stakes for animal protection

In this commentary, Wayne Pacelle analyzes a controversy in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, where local officials entertained a scheme to create a cockfighting enclave for the nation despite longstanding state and federal bans. Wayne argues that the plan is folly, but underscores the persistence of the lawbreakers involved in these organized cockfighting crime associations. They are brazen in so many ways. Wayne situates animal fighting within a broader context of organized crime, public safety threats, and legislative inaction. Read more here.

Roadless forest protections at risk: Wildlife and watersheds face new threats

Acclaimed wildlife and outdoors journalist Ted Williams examines the Trump administration’s proposal to repeal the Roadless Rule, which protects nearly 60 million acres of national forest from roadbuilding and commercial logging. Williams explains how eliminating these safeguards would fragment wildlife habitat, open up poaching opportunities, create more opportunities for bear baiters, and pose a threat to the well-being of wildlife in so many ways. Read more here.

ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION IN THE NEWS

• KLFY (Louisiana) reports that Animal Wellness Action agrees with Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s statement affirming that cockfighting remains illegal in St. Landry Parish. Read the story here.
• WPDE (South Carolina) reports that lawmakers and animal advocates are urging public support for the bipartisan FIGHT Act, which would toughen federal penalties for dogfighting and cockfighting and is backed by Animal Wellness Action President Wayne Pacelle as essential to stopping these linked animal cruelty and criminal enterprises. Read the story here.
• Spectrum News 1 (North Carolina) reports on the bust of a large, organized cockfighting ring in Forsyth County, where authorities seized hundreds of roosters and filed felony charges. The story notes that Animal Wellness Action helped expose the operation and has been instrumental in pressing law enforcement and lawmakers to treat organized animal fighting as a serious criminal enterprise rather than isolated acts of cruelty. Read the story here.
• Animals 24-7 profiles the life and impact of Marian Probst, a behind-the-scenes animal advocate who co-founded the Fund for Animals and served on the board of the Center for a Humane Economy. She passed away on Christmas Day at the age of 90. Wayne Pacelle’s tribute and obituary emphasizes her selfless leadership in advancing animal welfare and organizational development, even without public recognition. Read the story here.
• Wayne Pacelle provided a guest column for The Gazette (Iowa). In it, he argues that the pork industry’s campaign to overturn voter-approved animal welfare laws like California’s Prop 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3—through efforts such as the Save Our Bacon Act—would roll back humane standards and punish responsible farmers who have already moved away from extreme confinement. Read his column here.

Stand with Animal Wellness Action to push Congress to strengthen the federal law against dogfighting and cockfighting by supporting the bipartisan FIGHT Act. This legislation bans online gambling on animal fights, the mailing of fighting animals through the U.S. Postal Service, and gives law enforcement and private citizens stronger tools to shut down animal-fighting operations. Tell your two U.S. senators and your U.S. representative you want them to cosponsor the measure here.

We are fighting off an effort by factory farming interests to overturn the states’ most important and high-impact farm animal welfare laws. The Save Our Bacon Act would nullify California’s Prop 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3 and roll back progress for animal welfare. Act now by contacting your legislators to protect animals, farmers, and consumer choice. Go here today.

MORE FROM ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION

• The Animal Wellness Podcast. Our latest episode examines the shocking killing of a wolf in Wyoming and the criminal case now facing Cody Roberts, a prosecution that has reignited national outrage and scrutiny of the state’s wildlife laws. Joined by veteran wildlife reporter Mark Heinz of Cowboy State Daily, the discussion explores how the case is being received inside Wyoming—and whether it signals a genuine reckoning over cruelty, accountability, and the future of wolves, or just another brief flare-up in a long-running conflict. Listen here.
• Report on mink. Our in-depth, science-based report exposes the harsh realities of mink fur farming in the United States, documenting systemic animal cruelty, mounting economic failure, and the threat of zoonotic disease spillover into human communities from the overcrowded, squalid mink farms. It makes the urgent case for decisive federal action to avert the next pandemic. Download it here.

All of this work—exposing cruelty, driving media coverage, advancing legislation, and producing authoritative reports—is part of a single, coordinated effort to protect animals. Your donation fuels that work and helps turn advocacy, investigation, and education into real, lasting change for animals. Go here to support our campaigns.