
Ownership of Reptiles Banned in Pittsburgh
This Spring, HAP is celebrating a major victory for reptiles: “On Tuesday, March 23, Pittsburgh City Council unanimously passed Ordinance No. 36, which bans the ownership of any Crocodilian species or any Red-eared slider, which includes alligators, crocodiles,...

Gardening for Animals and the Earth: Part 1
I don’t know how everyone else feels, but the milder weather outside this past week in Pittsburgh has me thinking Spring! My partner and I moved into our first house back in the Summer of 2020. Until then, I’d always lived in apartments without any usable outdoor...

Protecting Rachel Carson’s Legacy in Pittsburgh by Protecting Pittsburgh’s Pigeons
This year, I began listening to a new podcast, The Last Archive, and was excited to hear an episode dedicated to a local legend, environmentalist Rachel Carson. Many of us in Pittsburgh have enjoyed hikes on the Rachel Carson Trail, and all of us in the U.S. have...

Hex and Jinx: Bettas Fresh Start at Life
Imagine being stuck in a transparent porta-potty where no one walking past you cared to clean or help you escape. Awful, right? That’s how my Betta fish friends were living when they were surrendered to Ahimsa Safe Haven from a grocery store. You’ve probably read or...

Wildlife Corridors in Pennsylvania
Although many of us use outdoor recreation spaces extensively, this may be a year when our state, county, and city parks have been more valuable to us than ever before. We may think of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania as places with expansive amounts of green space...

Compassionate Gift Guide
The holidays are upon us, and while 2020 means adjusting our typical holiday celebrations, that doesn’t mean the gift-giving has to stop! This year, choose compassionate gifts for everyone on your list! Compassion encompasses not just the animals, but also the...

The Pandemic Puppy: What Adoption Trends in the Era of Coronavirus Tell Us About Animal Adoption
Back in March and April, the novel coronavirus was still...well, novel. People were coping with quarantines, and news programs were still, between the harder-hitting segments, doing cute human interest stories about at-home bread baking and socially distanced Mother’s...

The Life of a Thanksgiving Turkey
This year, more than 49,000,000 turkeys will be served as part of Americans’ Thanksgiving feasts. This will be the end of a short and miserable life for a bird that was once referred to by Benjamin Franklin as a “respectable bird” and a “bird of courage.” Turkeys,...

Why We Adopt, Don’t Shop
This year, Humane Action Pittsburgh has been working hard to raise awareness about the conditions under which some commercially bred dogs are bred, born, and raised, building on previous work on a Puppy Mill Ban Ordinance. Earlier in October, Aimee wrote about...