Building a humane world for animals

The sprawling Black Beauty Ranch, in East Texas, takes its name from the classic 1877 novel. Narrated by a horse, “Black Beauty” encouraged readers see the world from an animal’s point of view.

“The story of ‘Black Beauty’ is about coming home, and feeling free and safe, and so, this is what all these animals get to do,” said Kitty Block, the CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, the non-profit which funds Black Beauty as a sanctuary.

On its 1,400 acres, there are zebras and macaques, bison and lions. “They’ve all come from various rescue situations,” said Block. “Each one has an incredible story.”

There’s Loki the tiger, rescued from someone’s garage in Houston. There’s Eve, known as the “bare bear,” who was once so hairless and emaciated that rescuers initially didn’t know what she was.

Block showed us a group of lemurs: “These guys were in a very dark, small place, did not have anything that resembled this kind of life. So, it’s amazing to see them, how they’ve taken to their habitat.”

The ranch’s first residents were wild donkeys, airlifted from the Grand Canyon by Black Beauty’s founder, the author, critic and animal rights activist Cleveland Amory.

Today the sanctuary is home to 150 donkeys. But if you’re wondering where all of the dogs and cats are hiding, the Humane Society of the United States isn’t actually affiliated with the thousands of humane societies that operate shelters across the country. “Local Humane Societies do take care of dogs, cats, pets, sometimes other animals, and they are amazing places, and we work really closely with them,” said Block. “But that’s not us. We are a policy organization. We are a lobbyist shop. We work around the world, and we do rescue. But you can’t get your dog or cat from us.”

For the past 70 years, the Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington, D.C., has worked on issues ranging from investigating the international fur trade, to advocating for disaster relief plans that take animals into account.

This past week, the organization announced it’s changing its name. To reduce confusion and better reflect its global focus, it will now be known as Humane World for Animals. “Our mission still is about getting at the root causes to prevent tomorrow’s cruelties, but also helping animals in crisis today,” said Block. “What the new name does is reflect what we do, how we do it, and where we do it.”

After nearly a decade of intense campaigning, the group recently celebrated a win in South Korea. Last year, that country’s National Assembly voted to ban the dog meat industry.

So, what is happening today that people in the future will look back and say, I can’t believe we did that?

Block said, “I think the situation with the factory farming is one that we will all look back on and say, ‘Really? Did we do that? Did we confine animals in these terrible, extreme situations just because it was cheaper or easier, or if we just throw them all together and seal the doors people won’t know it’s happening?'”

In 2023, Humane World for Animals successfully defended California’s Proposition 12, an animal cruelty law, at the Supreme Court. The law established minimum space requirements for certain species of livestock.

Block said, “Confining animals in extremely terrible situations, where animals are stacked in cages on top of cages, it creates conditions where there are illnesses. So, there’s swine flu, there’s bird flu. You can’t keep pretending that it has nothing to do with us.”

Protecting the six hundred or so residents of this ranch is, in a way, a symbolic act for an organization looking to improve the welfare of animals around the world – symbolic, like the name Black Beauty. As Kitty Block explains, the ability to consider an animal’s perspective is part of what makes us human. “It’s important not just for the animals, but it’s important for us, who we are, how we think about ourselves. How we want to have a world that we pass on to our children and our children’s children. Animals belong there. And so, we are committed to making sure that they have that right, they have that ability, to thrive, because it matters to all of us.”

       
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Story produced by Anthony Laudato. Editor: Libby Fabricatore. 

      
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