2024 Quarter 2 Impact Report

Roadside Zoo Case Brings Promise of Rescue for Dozens of Animals

With your help, a long-running Animal Legal Defense Fund case reached a positive conclusion in November, with a settlement that will send 45 captive animals from bleak roadside zoo Farmers Inn to peaceful sanctuary homes.

Endangered gray wolves Ridge and Arrow, who pace back and forth in a largely barren enclosure; a ring-tailed lemur forced to live alone without regard for her species’ social needs; and a scarlet macaw whose feathers are picked largely bare in a classic sign of stress are among the animals who will be rescued as a result of the settlement.

Your support made it possible to stay the course through years of litigation with the rural Pennsylvania roadside zoo. The lawsuit, Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Lucas, also resulted in multiple animal law milestones, including a successful petition for reconsideration that reinstated our incorrectly dismissed public nuisance claim related to violations of wildlife protection laws, as well as the first known claim brought on behalf of a captive bird protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

For animals like these, caring people like you are the difference between suffering in silence and having strong, effective legal representation to help them prevail in court. Learn more about the case at aldf.org/pennsylvania.

Protecting Wildlife From Cruel Killing Contests

Your support is powering legislative victories for wildlife across the U.S.

With your help, the Animal Legal Defense Fund is taking on cruel killing contests that encourage participants to indiscriminately kill native wildlife as part of a sick “game” for cash and prizes.

Advocacy from the Animal Legal Defense Fund and our supporters has helped power important recent progress against these inhumane contests. Oregon banned killing contests targeting coyotes and other “unprotected mammals” on public lands. New York enacted a law banning wildlife killing contests, becoming the 10th state to prohibit these cruel events. And in the New Jersey Legislature, a proposed killing contest ban passed its first committee vote in December. Learn more at aldf.org/killingcontest.

Animal Legal Defense Fund Launches New Podcast

What status do animals have under the law? Is there a connection between cruelty to animals and mental illness? Can an abused animal have an attorney represent them in court? Are videos that depict violence against animals protected by the First Amendment? And who counts as an animal, anyway?

These and more important questions on animals and the law are covered in the first season of the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s new podcast, Animal Amicus — with all episodes now available to stream. Join Senior Policy Program Manager Nicole Pallotta and Managing Attorney David Rosengard as they explore landmark rulings and milestone moments in criminal animal law.

Animal Amicus is available on audio platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also listen and find additional resources on each topic at aldf.org/podcast.

A Watershed Moment for Farmed Animals

The farmed animal protection movement had a landmark moment on January 1 when California’s Proposition 12 went into full effect. It’s a moment years in the making, after the animal agriculture industry brought multiple lawsuits seeking to undermine the law.

Proposition 12 was a ballot initiative passed by voters who cared about banning the cruelest forms of intensive confinement on factory farms. The law requires improved minimum housing standards for mother pigs, hens used in egg production, and calves raised for veal, for producers who want to sell their products in California.

With your help, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and coalition partners intervened to help California defend Proposition 12 against an industry-brought lawsuit, National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2023, the Court sided with the animals in upholding the law. Learn more at aldf.org/prop12.