As 2006 comes to a close and The HSUS gears up for another challenging year of animal protection, it is important to reflect on the many successes achieved for animals over the past 12 months.

Great advances were made in all of The HSUS' major campaigns and programs, reducing animal suffering coast-to-coast. The following is a sampling of the animals whose lives are changed for the better:

Companion Animals

• Pets and service animals will no longer be separated from their families in disasters for lack of official planning, as tens of thousands were last year in Hurricane Katrina.  With The HSUS leading the charge, Congress passed the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act, which requires state and local agencies to include the animals in disaster plans.
  
  
• Thousands of animals in remote areas face healthier prospects next year after receiving medical care at no cost to their guardians from The HSUS' Rural Area Veterinary Services program.
  
  
• Pets in Ohio and South Dakota will benefit from state laws creating pet trusts—just two of 65 new state animal protection laws that The HSUS campaigned for and won.
  
  
• Nearly 300 dogs and several cats face a future free of wire cages and unsanitary living conditions after The HSUS' Disaster Animal Response Team rescued them in October from a Tennessee breeding facility where they were hoarded.

Farm Animals

• Calves and breeding pigs in Arizona will be spared cruel confinement on industrial farms thanks to a landslide ballot victory in November that The HSUS campaigned for side-by-side with grassroots advocates.
  
  
• Hundreds of thousands of laying hens will be freed from tiny battery cages because dozens of retailers, university dining halls, and corporate cafeterias—including AOL, Google, and Ben & Jerry's—agreed to begin implementing cage-free egg policies.
  
  
• Hundreds of thousands of farm animals transported long distances by truck will get federal protections after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the federal "28-hour law" applies to trucks in addition to trains, following a petition from The HSUS.
  
  
• Chickens, turkeys and other birds will be given their day in court after a U.S. District Court judge refused to dismiss an HSUS suit challenging USDA's policy of excluding poultry from the Humane Methods Slaughter Act.

Hunters' Targets

• Mourning doves in Michigan dodged a bullet when the state overwhelmingly shot down a ballot initiative proposing to lift a ban on dove-hunting. The HSUS worked with grassroots campaigners leading to a rejection of dove hunting by every county in the state.
  
  
• Pigeons in Pennsylvania received a reprieve when The HSUS worked with one community to halt a cruel shoot slated to kills thousands of the birds for recreation and prizes.
  
  
• Wildlife on national refuges face a better chance of survival after a federal court declared new sport hunting on national wildlife refuges unlawful.
  
  
• Wildlife in Oregon will be protected thanks to a state Supreme Court decision upholding the state's authority to ban cruel canned-hunting operations, despite opposition from trophy hunting groups, including Safari Hunting International.
  
  
• Fewer rare and exotic animals will likely be targeted—and U.S. taxpayers will save as much as $49 million dollars over the next 10 years—after The HSUS persuaded Congress to close a tax loophole that allowed wealthy trophy hunters to write off the costs of their hunting trips as a charitable donation.

Fur-Bearing Animals

• Canada's seals moved closer to safety when the European Union called for a ban on harp and hooded seal products after Heather and Paul McCartney joined The HSUS' ProtectSeals team to oppose the annual Canadian seal hunt.
  
  
• Fur-bearing animals won't end up in the collections of Kenneth Cole because, after negotiations with The HSUS, this compassionate designer pledged to go fur-free. Also fur-free was Project Runway winner Jay McCarroll's Fashion Week show in New York, sponsored by The HSUS.
  
  
• Fur-bearing wildlife worldwide will be spared from the designs of hundreds of future fashion designers who learned about the cruelty of fur through the second annual HSUS Cool vs. Cruel design contest.
  
  
• Wolves in Wisconsin and Michigan won federal protections when federal courts halted their killing at The HSUS' request.
  

Animals Exploited for Fighting

• Roosters will no longer be transported by Continental Airlines, which unwittingly shipped thousands of birds every year to Guam (where cockfighting is rampant) until informed by The HSUS.
  
  
• Birds in several Louisiana parishes will be spared the cruelty of cockfighting thanks to a Louisiana Supreme Court decision upholding a Caddo Parish ordinance, resulting in the shuttering of two of the country's largest cockfighting pits.    
  
  
• Dogs will no longer be exploited in dogfighting videos sold by Best Buy, Netflix, Circuit City, eBay and Amazon.com, which agreed to pull the product from their shelves. Other dogs will be spared the brutality of hog-dog fighting after an HSUS investigation led to the arrest of organizers of a national hog-dog fighting association.

Rescued Animals

• Rescued animals will face a brighter new year in The Fund for Animals' five direct care operations, which provide sanctuary, rehabilitation and medical care. Three chimpanzees in the Fund's care will enjoy a brand new outdoor habitat built just for them. 

Updated Dec. 28, 2006