where science and ethics intersect with politics
From global food labels to wild-horse roundups, 2025 pushed animal issues into the center of climate, policy, and public-health debates. New transparency laws, plant-based investment, companion-animal protections, and growing scrutiny of industrial livestock marked a year in which governments could no longer ignore the ethical and environmental costs of animal exploitation.
The United States finds itself with war-level debt in peacetime, a generational burden no child asked for, and a currency system that rewards the rich and punishes the rest. If we do not restore fiscal ethics, the vulnerable will be the first to be sacrificed—human, non-human and environmental alike. The time for leadership is now.
John Jay argues that a strong national government is essential for preventing conflict and protecting America’s peace — a truth that remains relevant in an interconnected world.
Soft, sweet, and warmly spiced, these vegan cinnamon rolls are the perfect Yule morning ritual—golden spirals of cinnamon sugar topped with a melting vanilla glaze to welcome the return of the light.
John Jay argues that America’s survival depends on national unity — a truth that remains as essential in the 21st century as it was in the founding era.
On December 7, America remembers Pearl Harbor—but remembrance means more than ritual. The Humane Herald examines the war’s true cost: human suffering, environmental devastation, emergency powers, and the birth of a militarized state. To honor history, we must confront the systems that make war inevitable—and choose a humane alternative.
Democrats’ recent attempt to brand their proposal as the “Abolition Amendment” obscures the term’s established meaning and appropriates language created by the Humane Party years earlier. While removing the 13th Amendment’s punishment clause is necessary, it is not abolition — not when the slavery of non-human beings remains fully intact. By co-opting a name that already denotes the complete end of slavery for all creatures, the proposal risks misleading the public and diluting a central pillar of the animal rights movement.
Abolition Day marks the ratification of the 13th Amendment—an end to legal slavery, but not an end to the forces that shaped it. For the Humane Party, this day is both remembrance and responsibility, a reminder that abolition was a beginning and that the deeper work of justice remains unfinished.
A rising voice speaks from the margins, where humans and animals share the same bruised earth and the same hunger for freedom. This poem follows the underdogs—the silenced, the overlooked—as they discover the rebellious power of standing up together.
Lancaster Farm Sanctuary is reshaping what sanctuary work means inside one of Pennsylvania’s most agriculturally entrenched counties. In this in-depth conversation, the LFS team reflects on their origins, the daily rituals that center animal agency, the emotional weight of rescue work, and the communities that make their mission possible. From piglets teaching elders how to play to ponies who insist on freedom during their evening return, every story underscores the same truth: when animals are given safety, autonomy, and respect, they reveal who they have always been. This interview offers a rare, honest look at the joys and struggles of sanctuary life—and what compassion can build when a community chooses to care.
On December 5, The Humane Herald examines the accelerating destruction of the world’s rainforests—and the political and economic systems driving it. From Indigenous displacement to mass extinction, rainforest collapse is not a natural disaster but a policy choice. A humane future demands abolition of the industries fueling this crisis.
Animal rescuer Zoe Rosenberg faces a 90-day jail sentence — and potentially life-threatening medical neglect — for saving four suffering chickens from a Perdue slaughterhouse. Her case exposes a deeper crisis in California: the criminalization of compassion and the protection of corporate cruelty at any cost.
On World Wildlife Conservation Day and International Cheetah Day, The Humane Herald examines the crisis facing cheetahs and the global systems driving wildlife decline. Beyond charismatic species, true conservation demands dismantling the industries and worldviews that treat animals as resources rather than beings with rights.
A leader who kills a puppy and then proudly markets the story is not an anomaly — she is a symptom of a political culture that confuses cruelty with strength. The Kristi Noem scandal is not about a single dog; it is a mirror held up to America’s comfort with harm, hierarchy, and disposability.
Hamilton warns that the nation must choose whether it will be shaped by reasoned choice or by accident and force — a question that continues to define American democracy.
In the wake of escalating global conflicts, the rules of war remain clear — yet increasingly ignored. This article examines what international humanitarian law actually requires, why war crimes are legally defined and not subjective, and how powerful nations have begun eroding the very principles designed to protect civilians. As civilian casualties rise and accountability fades, the world is left with an unsettling question: if these are the rules of war, who is still following them?
The Humane Herald 