How we worked to save wild animals all over the world in 2024

One of the urgencies that defines our mission in this era is the rapidly increasing threat to wild animals all over the world. Under the overwhelming pressures of biodiversity loss, shrinking habitats and climate change, untold numbers of wild animals also face the cruelty of the illegal wildlife trade, trophy hunting, predator control and businesses that want to lock them in cages, pools, circus rings or petting zoos for entertainment. Others simply find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, sparking human-wildlife conflict and its too-often fatal “solutions.”

Where the threats are many, dexterity is essential. We are proud that our work to end cruelties that afflict wildlife involves a multitude of strategies designed to ensure their protection. Here are just some of the pro-wildlife practices and policies we pursued in 2024:

Protecting wild animals from cruelty

We take action to stop cruelty from finding animals in their wild homes, whether it’s the manifest harms of the wildlife trade or the scope of a trophy hunter’s rifle.

• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a rule that will effectively ban elephant hunting trophy imports from certain countries that serve as major destinations for trophy hunters—a win for the conservation of the species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
• We released an undercover investigation that exposed a thriving market for elephant ivory in Connecticut, showing that the weak patchwork of laws addressing the elephant ivory trade is not enough.
• We and our allies won an injunction in federal court halting wolf trapping in Idaho’s grizzly bear habitat, an area covering roughly half of the state. The court’s ruling cited the unacceptable risk that indiscriminate steel-jawed leghold traps and snares pose to grizzlies.
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule under the Endangered Species Act to support reintroduction and recovery of grizzly bears within the North Cascades Ecosystem.
• The U.S. National Park Service finalized a rule to ban the use of donuts, dog food, meat scraps and other smelly bait to attract brown bears and black bears to be hunted and killed on Alaska’s national preserves.
• We successfully shielded cougars from additional trophy hunting in Washington, where the state’s wildlife commission adopted rules based on a petition we submitted with coalition partners.
• In Texas, we supported a successful effort to ban the canned hunting of cougars and establish a trap-check time to spare animals caught in traps from prolonged suffering before their deaths at the hands of trappers.
• With allies, we successfully defeated a proposal by the South Dakota Game Fish and Parks Commission to reduce the population of mountain lions.
• We sent an expert delegation to the International Whaling Commission conference in Peru to advocate for better protections for cetaceans and an end to commercial whaling.
• In Iceland, we worked alongside our partner groups to amplify calls for a ban on commercial whaling there including submitting a 2.2 million signature petition with Avaaz.
• We collaborated with Costa Rica’s National Environmental Security Commission to train more than 170 law enforcement officers on combating the illegal wildlife trade and best practices for handling confiscated animals and conducted three workshops for Costa Rican authorities about how to care for wildlife seized in judicial and police operations.
• In Guatemala, we provided training for wildlife officers from the National Council of Protected Areas on the threats of illegal wildlife trafficking. The training covered topics such as the proper handling of confiscated animals and human-wildlife interactions and coexistence

Defending wild animals kept in captivity

• In South Africa, we helped governing authorities take the first steps to close the captive lion industry and press for the surrender of its stockpiles of lion bones and parts.
• In England, we welcomed new restrictions on the keeping of primates as pets, making it an offence to own a primate privately without a license.

In Guatemala, with the support of ARCAS Rescue Center, we facilitated the rehabilitation and release of 112 animals from 18 different species, including endangered scarlet macaws, margays, anteaters, raccoons and more, all of whom had been rescued from wildlife trafficking and other exploitative practices.