Voters For Animal Rights

06/02/2026

🐙 This is it folks! We have three days left days before the NYS legislative session ends for the year - and your calls can help us get the octopus farming ban bill up for a vote. New York is a national leader in protecting animals and the environment, and prohibiting octopus farming accomplishes both of those goals.

📱 Please take 2 minutes today to make these 3 calls to State Senate and Assembly leadership now:

🗣️SAMPLE SCRIPT: “Hello, my name is _____ and I’m a resident of _____, New York. I’m calling to urge you to bring the octopus farming ban bill S.7421B/A.8043A to the floor for a vote. Thank you.”

☎️ WHO TO CALL:
▪️ Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: 518-455-2585 or 518-455-2715
▪️ Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie: 518-455-3791
▪️ Senate Deputy Majority Leader Mike Gianaris: 518-455-3486

06/02/2026

Happy Pride Month from all of us at Voters For Animal Rights! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

As a q***r-led organization, Pride is personal to us, not just a celebration, but a reminder of why we do this work. And this year, that reminder feels more urgent than ever.

We believe, to our core, that oppression is oppression regardless of who it targets. The same logic that allows one group of beings to be exploited, dismissed, or erased is the logic that threatens q***r people, trans people, BIPOC people, disabled people, immigrants, and so many others. These are not separate struggles. They are the same struggle, wearing different faces.

At VFAR, we don't see animal rights as a cause disconnected from human rights, we see them as inseparable. When we fight for the most vulnerable among us, we are practicing the same muscle of moral imagination that every justice movement requires. Empathy, once stretched, doesn't snap back.

We see what is happening right now. The attacks on q***r and trans communities are real. The rollback of protections for marginalized people is real. The attempt to make entire communities feel unsafe, unseen, or unwelcome is real. We refuse to look away from any of it.

So this , we stand with our LGBTQIA+ family, with all people facing the targeting of this political moment, and with every being who deserves to live free from fear and cruelty.

The arc of justice is long, but we believe it bends—and we intend to bend it together.

With love and solidarity,
Julie Cappiello, VFAR President

06/01/2026

🐢 New York has a chance to end the cruel red-eared slider trade, but time is running out!

S6621/A1685, sponsored by Senator Pete Harckham and Assembly Member Linda B. Rosenthal, would prohibit the breeding, sale, and trade of red-eared slider turtles in New York State. Session ends in just DAYS, and we need to make noise in Albany RIGHT NOW.

Here's the hard truth: red-eared sliders are impulse-purchased by families who have no idea these animals can live 40 years and require serious, specialized care. Most are abandoned or surrendered within a few years, overwhelming shelters and rescues across New York. And for turtles released into local waterways? Wildlife managers cull them by decapitation once they start competing with native species.

These animals aren't trinkets. They deserve better than a cycle of impulse purchase, neglect, abandonment, and death — driven by a trade that treats them as disposable. Quite frankly, it's turtle-y unacceptable. 🐢

👉 Email AND call your NYS legislators today to urge them to co-sponsor S6621/A1685: 🔗 https://buff.ly/11JeQSJ

The turtles are counting on us. Please share and spread the word! 💜

05/31/2026

Thank you Council Member Shahana Hanif. ❤️

Activists had sued in a bid to secure her the fundamental human right to bodily liberty. Zoo officials said she was well cared for and called the lawsuit frivolous.

05/30/2026

The government is poisoning animals on your public lands. And they just made it worse. 🚨

Imagine your dog picking up a scent on a hiking trail — and within seconds, convulsing on the ground. That's what M-44 cyanide bombs do. They lure animals in, then blast lethal poison into their faces. What follows is seizures. Paralysis. Suffocation. A slow, terrifying death. And it happens to any animal who gets close — endangered species, birds of prey, and yes, the dog on the end of your leash.

In 2017, it happened to a 14-year-old boy named Canyon Mansfield on a public trail near his Idaho home. His dog collapsed and died. Canyon was lucky to survive. His family spent years fighting to make sure it never happened to anyone else — and in 2023, they won. M-44 devices were finally banned on federal lands.

Last month, the Trump administration quietly reversed that ban. No announcement. No public debate. Just a memo, and suddenly, cyanide bombs are back on the trails where you walk your dog, where your kids play, where wildlife should be free to exist without fear.
Animals are not collateral damage. They are not pests. They are living, feeling beings and they deserve our protection.

Canyon's Law would permanently ban these devices. We owe it to Canyon. We owe it to every animal. And we owe it to every family who just wants to take a walk outside without fear.

🔗 SIGN NOW: https://buff.ly/TGS9LoJ

05/30/2026

Thank you Assembly Member Tony Simone and Empire Report!

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05/29/2026

Patty, an elephant held at the Bronx Zoo, has been living in solitary confinement since 2018. 🐘💔

Elephants are among the most intelligent and socially complex animals on Earth. In the wild, they live in tight-knit matriarchal herds, form deep lifelong bonds, mourn their dead, and travel up to 50 miles a day. Their psychological and physical health depends entirely on companionship and space. Isolation doesn't just make them sad — it destroys them.

The Bronx Zoo's elephant program has been a failure for decades. Happy, who was captured from the wild as a calf, spent over 20 years in isolation after her companion was killed. Instead of transferring her to a sanctuary where she could have had space and companionship, the Bronx Zoo kept her confined until her death on May 26, 2026. We cannot allow Patty to meet the same fate.

There are accredited elephant sanctuaries in the United States equipped to give Patty the life she deserves. There is no excuse for inaction.

We are calling on the Bronx Zoo and the Wildlife Conservation Society to transfer Patty immediately, permanently close their elephant exhibit, and re-commit to never housing elephants again.

Patty has suffered long enough. New York City is no place for an elephant. 💔

🔗 SIGN AND SHARE the petition: https://buff.ly/jkPa9DO

05/28/2026

Voters For Animal Rights Statement on the Death of Happy the Elephant:

It is with profound grief and moral outrage that Voters For Animal Rights acknowledges the death of Happy, the elephant held captive at the Bronx Zoo for decades.

Happy's life was a testament to the Bronx Zoo's willful disregard for elephant welfare. After her companion Grumpy was killed by fellow elephants Patty and Maxine in 2002, Happy was condemned to more than two decades of solitary confinement—a direct result of the zoo's failure to provide a safe, appropriate environment. Rather than transferring Happy to a sanctuary equipped to meet her complex social and psychological needs, the Bronx Zoo chose to keep her isolated and hidden from the public.

Happy was a scientifically significant individual—one of the first elephants documented to demonstrate self-recognition, offering compelling evidence of advanced cognitive awareness. She deserved far better than what the Bronx Zoo provided.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums explicitly states that no elephant should live in a herd of fewer than three. The Bronx Zoo has long been in violation of this standard—not for one elephant, but for two.

Patty has similarly been living in solitary confinement since 2018, when her companion Maxine died. The zoo has repeatedly and deliberately ignored calls from advocates, scientists, and the public to transfer both elephants to sanctuaries where they could live with appropriate companionship and space.

Happy was captured from the wild, where she should have spent her entire life. She never knew sanctuary. What she knew was concrete, confinement, and isolation—all choices made by the Bronx Zoo.

Voters For Animal Rights is calling on the Bronx Zoo to immediately arrange for Patty's transfer to an accredited elephant sanctuary and permanently close its elephant exhibit.

We are also calling on the New York City Council to bring Intro 590 to a vote—legislation that would prohibit elephant captivity in New York City and ensure no elephant ever has to endure what Happy and Patty have suffered.

Elephants are not entertainers. They are highly intelligent, deeply social beings who suffer immeasurably in captivity, and New York City is no place for them.

The Bronx Zoo had every opportunity to do right by Happy and Patty. It chose not to. That choice has consequences, and we will continue to hold this institution accountable.

05/28/2026

🐿️ We have only 5 days left to help end the use of glue traps in all government owned and leased buildings across New York State.

🐦 S.3046C/A.10189B, sponsored by Senator and , needs to pass the Senate Investigations & Gov Ops Committee and Assembly Rules Committee so it can be voted on by the end of the 2026 session next week. The further we can get the bill now, the better positioning we will be in for next year’s session in 2027.

☎️ PLEASE MAKE QUICK CALLS TO LEADERSHIP TODAY.

🏛️ NYS Assembly Speaker & Rules Committee Chair, Carl Heastie (518) 455-3791

🏛️ NYS Senate Investigations & Government Operations Committee Chair James Skoufis: (518) 455-3290

🏛️ NYS Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins: (518) 455-2585 or (518) 455-2715

🏛️ NYS Senate Deputy Leader Mike Gianaris: (518) 455-3486

💬 SUGGESTED SCRIPT:

“Hello, my name is [YOUR NAME] and I’m calling to ask that S.3046 B/A.10189A pass this session. This bill prohibits the use of glue traps in state-owned & leased buildings. Glue traps cause prolonged suffering to wildlife and companion animals, and are ineffective for rodent control. Thank you.”

It only takes a minute, and offices truly do keep a tally of every call received.

05/28/2026

We’re making good progress on S.3046B/A.10189A, legislation that would prohibit glue traps in New York State-owned and leased buildings. Thanks to the leadership of the bill’s sponsors and and all of your phone calls and letters, the bill has passed the Senate Consumer Protection Committee and the Assembly Economic Development Committee. Thank you to committee chairs Senator Rachel May and for prioritizing this issue.

The slides list how each of the committee reps voted. If your elected official voted “YES”, please call them to thank them or tag them below! But if your rep voted “NO”, politely let them know that you’re disappointed.

The glue trap bill has two more committees to pass - stay tuned to our page on how you can help restrict one of the cruelest animal control devices still in use. These devices trap wildlife animals and companion animals for hours or even days, leaving them to suffer from starvation, dehydration, injury, and extreme distress before they die.