This year, we’ve been on the front lines, fighting and righting wrongs so that change is possible. We are so grateful for your support because it enabled us to:

● File an emergency rulemaking petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to restrict U.S. zoos’ ability to import African elephants. The petition states that FWS has superficially relied on three premises to determine zoos’ imports of wild elephants are not for commercial use: the zoos’ status as nonprofits, their plan to breed animals and their role in educating the public as part of their mission. In reality, there’s plenty of evidence zoos are big business.

● Continue to pressure NYC, the heart of the fur trade, to ban the sale of fur. FoA’s efforts to spur the city council to introduce fur ban legislation paid off when City Council Speaker Corey Johnson introduced legislation in the spring. In the meantime, we were bolstered that Macy’s, whose flagship store is in the heart of NYC, announced that it will stop selling fur by the end of the 2020 fiscal year.

● Challenge Colorado Wildlife Services, USFWS and Wildlife Services roundup and killing of 1,662 resident Canada geese from four parks in Denver who were then feed to the needy to solve a “goose poop problem.”

● Win a lawsuit on behalf of our Texas primate sanctuary, Primarily Primates, to stop Chimps, Inc. in Oregon from moving chimpanzees to a research lab in Iowa. The chimps will get to stay together on the same property where they’ve lived for more than a decade under the supervision of the newly formed nonprofit Freedom for Great Apes. We were also able to rescue 11 animals who needed to be relocated from a California sanctuary that was closing due to financial struggles and bring them to new homes at PPI.

● Win a ruling for our lawsuit, which moves the queen conch back to fair and full consideration under the Endangered Species Act.

● File a lawsuit against the federal Bureau of Land Management for its decision to not return 779 of the wild horses it rounded up from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon in 2018 to their habitat. FoA is challenging the decision’s new rule that virtually eliminates critical public participation in considerations about how to manage these and other wild horses in the future.

● Win a legal victory for the yellow-billed cuckoo. The settlement, filed Dec. 21 in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, sets an Aug. 5, 2020 deadline for designating habitat for the bird, of which there may be as few as 500 pairs north of the U.S.-Mexico border.

● Fight for overdue protections for the scarlet macaw. FoA won a lawsuit and successfully obtained an order from federal court requiring the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finalize its Endangered Species Act Listing Rule for the brilliant colored birds.

● Win a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management that halted a policy change that had allowed the agency to sell two dozen wild horses at a time with no questions asked to get around a Congressional ban on slaughter.

●Pursue transparency and public accountability among federal agencies with lawsuits challenging the Department of Interior’s failure to release numbers of elephant skins and giraffe parts being imported into the U.S. and the names of the importers.

●Pass important legislation in the New York State and Connecticut senates that would ban the importation, possession, sale or transport of the trophies of African elephants, lions, leopards, giraffes and black and white rhinos.

●Protect belugas by filing comments with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration against Mystic Aquarium’s efforts to acquire five captive beluga whales from Marineland, Canada.

In 2020, you can count on FoA for its continued integrity in its efforts to defend animals and the environment. Can we count on you to continue your support? You can make a donation here.