Humane World for Animals is one of the NGOs fighting the senseless division between animals to be loved and animals to be exploited.
New name, same values and a strengthened mission. It is with this spirit that Humane Society International, one of the largest and most effective animal protection NGOs in the world, became, at the start of 2025, Humane World for Animals, beginning a new chapter – a rebranding that is both deeply symbolic and strategic.
In a world that is changing rapidly and becoming ever more complex, even the organisations fighting for a fairer, more ethical and more sustainable future must know how to evolve in order to shape and give ever greater substance to their vision. For over seventy years, the Humane community – made up of staff, volunteers and supporters – has fought together and with determination to put an end to cruelty towards animals. Over the passing decades, these actions and their impact have reached new continents and cultures, have embraced different types of expertise and strategies, have achieved important results and changed the lives of thousands of animals, both directly, through field interventions, and indirectly, through institutional relationships and political lobbying.
Today, Humane World for Animals can claim to be a global reality with the strength and momentum to make a difference, and whose vision is now encapsulated in its very name, like the needle of a compass, to mark out the right direction: a more humane, compassionate, benevolent world for non-human animals.
At the heart of Humane's commitment are three fundamental elements: compassion (humane) towards all other living beings (animals) that share the Planet (world) with us. It is a direct appeal to the organisation's deepest ambition: to build a world in which the life of every animal is respected, protected and valued. We believe that humanity can and must be guided by empathy and a sense of responsibility towards all forms of life. Or, if nothing else, by the spirit of self-preservation, since animal welfare is profoundly connected to our own.
Environment, public health, social justice: these are all interconnected dimensions that require vision and collective action. In a world beset by environmental crises, conflicts and global health challenges, animal welfare cannot be regarded as a marginal issue. One need only think of topics such as the protection of wild species and biodiversity, which cannot be confined within the borders of a single state or geographic area, or the systematic exploitation of animals reared for food, which has serious ethical impacts on communities and on the climate too.
If we think of the effects of our actions – positive and negative – as drops falling into water that create wide ripples, it is logical to view our mission as a series of global challenges to which we can respond by starting from the local dimension. Humane World for Animals has a global mission, but every project is rooted in the communities in which we operate. In Italy, as in Mexico, India or South Africa, we work to find concrete and lasting solutions that are both sustainable and culturally sensitive.
Over the years, Humane has operated in over fifty countries, running campaigns across a full 360 degrees: from illegal wildlife trafficking to factory farming, from animal testing to animal fighting, from trophy hunting to the dog meat trade, to name but a few.
We have worked with companies and governments to achieve significant operational and legislative changes; we have rescued animals from farms, slaughterhouses, serious cases of mistreatment, fighting rings and natural disasters; we have promoted more ethical diets and lifestyles; we have championed the interests of animals whenever their existence, sentience and individuality has been objectified and commodified. And we will continue to do so until society has rediscovered its moral compass and comes to terms with the senselessness of that arbitrary division between animals to be loved and those to be exploited. Until a life is worth more than a fur collar, a hamburger, a trophy to put on display, a selfie.
From 2020 to the present day, in Italy, we have contributed to the end of fur farming and to several fashion brands dropping the use of fur, to the tabling of various legislative proposals to ban the import of hunting trophies from protected species, to training police forces on dogfighting, and to lobbying for the phasing out of cages in farming. In the months and years ahead, we will continue to wage important battles for civilisation: for the suppression of the criminal phenomenon of animal fighting, for new agricultural and food models and the transition to plant-based diets, for the protection of wildlife and for the elimination of cruel practices that are still legal and widespread. Not everything that is legal, or simply considered "normal", is ethically justifiable, and it is our moral duty to take action and fight for change to happen.
Humane World for Animals is not just a name that looks to the future, but an entire community projected towards a precise idea of what that future should look like. It is a promise, but also a call to action. Together, we can build a world that is fairer, more sustainable and more compassionate – for everyone.
