When you think back on 2024, what stands out? The total solar eclipse? The Olympics? The presidential election? For animals, 2024 was full of milestones that stopped suffering and saved lives.

Small animals scored several massive wins this year. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) stopped funding the most common type of sepsis experiments on mice. This will spare countless animals from being injected with toxins, force-fed bacteria or made to inhale a bacterial “slurry” and suffering shock, multiple organ failure and agonizing deaths.

It’s a victory for science, as well: Sepsis doesn’t affect humans as it does mice, which is why some 150 drugs have treated sepsis in mice, but every single one has failed in human trials. Now, NIH will invest in superior approaches that use human cells, specimens and data sets. These humane and human-relevant methods hold hope of delivering desperately needed treatments and cures.

There was great news for animals used to test foods, too: Candy maker Ferrero International and North American dairy giant Agropur Cooperative signed PETA’s Eat Without Experiments pledge against animal tests. This kind move spares mice from being force-fed cholesterol substances, sugar, fat or probiotics and killed.

The National Mango Board stopped funding tests that involved starving, killing and slicing open mice and rats. And pharmaceutical giant Sanofi joined many others in banning the forced swim test — in which mice, hamsters, rats and other small animals are dropped into beakers of water to see how long they’ll swim before giving up.

Ojai, California, banned glue traps — torture devices that snare small animals and cause them to struggle desperately to escape, sometimes chewing off their limbs before succumbing to shock, dehydration, asphyxiation or blood loss. Ojai also became the first city to ban “torture breeding” — intentionally breeding animals to have deformed bodies and extreme features that cause them a lifetime of suffering, such as the grotesquely flattened faces of French bulldogs and other breathing-impaired breeds, which leave them struggling for every breath.

"Chimp Crazy," the most-watched documentary in years on HBO Max, exposed the seedy underworld of misguided humans who force chimpanzees to live in their homes and exploit them for entertainment. And Hallmark stopped producing and selling cards featuring harmful and degrading images of chimpanzee infants who were torn away from their mothers.

Massachusetts residents prompted the state to ban traveling acts from exploiting primates, elephants and other animals, and the Maryland General Assembly also banned traveling shows with exotic animals. Indiana’s Hadi Shrine Circus pledged to stop using elephants.

Virginia passed bills outlawing the use of bullhooks (fireplace poker-like rods with sharp metal hooks on the end) to control elephants as well as declawing cats—a painful and debilitating mutilation that involves amputating the last digit of each toe.

H&M — the world’s second-largest clothing retailer — banned new down feathers, a decision that will spare ducks and geese the misery of being plucked and a painful and frightening death. Victoria’s Secret, which previously used up to 620,000 feathers for models’ angel wings in a single fashion show, returned to the runway this fall after a six-year hiatus showcasing gorgeous wings that were truly angelic, because they were vegan.

Starbucks stopped charging extra for vegan milks, giving consumers another great reason to sip kindly instead of supporting the dirty dairy industry, which forcibly impregnates cows, kidnaps their babies and treats mother cows like milk machines instead of the deeply emotional individuals they are. American Airlines added vegan creamer, becoming the fifth major U.S. airline to do so in less than two years. Compassion is taking off!

The list goes on and on. As more people realize that every animal is someone with a right to be treated with kindness and respect, there’s no doubt that there will be even more victories to celebrate in 2025.

_____

Heather Moore is a senior writer for the PETA Foundation, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.

_____

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.