1955
In 1955, the year after The HSUS was founded, the organization publishes the first issue of its magazine, with a lead story on the fight to relieve the suffering of laboratory animals.
1956-1957
The HSUS plans and begins its first investigation of animal treatment in an experimental laboratory.
1958
HSUS reports concerning shipments of monkeys—dead, dying and mutilated—coming through a New York City airport, persuade the Indian government to adopt stricter guidelines for transportation and care.
An HSUS investigator takes a job as an animal caretaker at the College of Medical Evangelists, which leads to The HSUS filing a formal complaint against the California laboratory.
1961
The HSUS publishes an exposé book, Animals in a Research Laboratory.
The HSUS releases a statistical study documenting the overuse of animals in published experiments and promoting ways to reduce animal numbers.
The HSUS sponsors and supports its first federal bill on laboratory animal usage.
1962
HSUS founder Fred Myers testifies before Congress and appears on NBC's Today Show to discuss pending federal legislation.
1963
HSUS Board member Cleveland Amory's article in the Saturday Evening Post levels a serious indictment of laboratory animal care in the United States.
1965
The HSUS provides strong backing for a Pennsylvania law to regulate dealers who supply dogs to laboratories.
1966
A raid on a dog dealer's premises by an HSUS agent and the Maryland State Police, illustrated in a Life magazine story, plays a significant role in the enactment of the federal Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966.
1973-1975
The HSUS takes legal action to force the Department of Defense to disclose military usage of animals.
1976-1978
The HSUS begins hiring scientific/medical professionals and forms the Institute for the Study of Animal Problems to address technical issues in animal welfare.
1979
ISAP holds a symposium on "The Use of Animals in High School Biology Classes and Science Fairs" and publishes the proceedings the following year.
1980
ISAP holds a symposium on "Non-human Primate Use and Husbandry in Biomedical Facilities."
1980s
Throughout the 1980s, The HSUS was the leading force in fighting pound seizure (the taking of dogs and cats from animal shelters for use in experiments), spearheading the formation of a national coalition of animal protection organizations and working with local organizations around the country.
During the early 1980s, an HSUS scientist served on an advisory panel that helped shape the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment's landmark 1986 report on "Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education."
1981
HSUS staff testify at a federal hearing deliberating proposed legislation to improve the Animal Welfare Act and alternative methods of research.
1983
An HSUS exposé of the suffering endured by dogs and cats in the U.S. Department of Defense's wound laboratories lead the DoD to end that line of experimentation.
1985
The Dole-Brown amendments to the Animal Welfare Act are signed into law after years of work by HSUS board member Robert Welborn and HSUS staff.
1986
The HSUS issues a comprehensive report on "Alternatives to Current Uses of Animals in Research, Safety Testing, and Education: A Layman's Guide."
1987
The HSUS issues its survey, "The significance of alternative techniques in biomedical research: An analysis of Nobel Prize awards," documenting the historical importance of non-animal methods in biomedical progress.
The HSUS provides legal representation to California high school student Jenifer Graham, who refused to dissect a frog in class; the landmark case leads to a statewide law supporting student choice in dissection.
Late 1980s through early 1990s
The HSUS works with renowned primatologist Jane Goodall to secure a congressional prohibition on the National Institutes of Health using any research funds for experiments on chimpanzees taken from the wild.
The HSUS plays a significant role in the passage of nine state laws that either make animal dissection optional or give students greater access to humane alternatives.
The HSUS plays a major role in pressuring the USDA to issue strong regulations under the 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act.
1990s
Throughout the 1990s, The HSUS advises thousands of conscientious student objectors to classroom dissection and vivisection.
1990
The HSUS establishes "The Beautiful Choice" campaign to promote the use of "cruelty-free" cosmetics.
Following the submission of an HSUS administrative petition, the USDA decides to begin regulating the use of the hundreds of thousands of mammalian farm animals (e.g., pigs) involved in biomedical research, under the Animal Welfare Act.
1991
The HSUS and co-plaintiffs win a lawsuit that challenges the USDA's exclusion of mice, rats, and birds from the protection of the Animal Welfare Act.
The HSUS establishes the annual Russell and Burch Award to recognize extraordinary scientific achievements in advancing alternatives to the use of animals in research, education, and testing.
1992
In 1992 and 1994 The HSUS plays a major role in the House Armed Services committee's oversight hearings on military research, leading to several reform measures, including the creation of a publicly available database on ongoing military animal research projects.
The HSUS files an administrative petition with the USDA, urging the agency to issue meaningful annual reports on the use of animals in research, and we continue to push this issue.
1993
The HSUS helps lobby for the creation of the Interagency Coordinating Committee for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), which now serves as the federal government's focal point for promoting alternatives testing methods.
The HSUS helps organize the First World Congress on Alternatives.
1995
The HSUS and the Gillette Company launch a funding program for alternative methods to animal testing.
The HSUS sponsors an international workshop to discuss the latest developments in alternatives to the infamous Draize eye irritancy test in rabbits.
The HSUS establishes a loan program for students and teachers seeking alternatives to dissecting animals, now called the Humane Education Loan Program.
1996
The HSUS's criticism of NASA's BION mission, which sent monkeys into space, helps lead Congress to reevaluate its funding of this inhumane and wasteful project, which was terminated a year later.
The HSUS plays a significant role in launching Altweb, an Internet resource with information on alternative methods.
The HSUS co-founds the Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics, a coalition of several animal protection organizations that encourages consumers to purchase cosmetics and household products that have not been tested on animals.
The HSUS helps to organize the Second World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, Utrecht, Netherlands.
1997
The HSUS establishes the Inter-Campus Animal Advocacy Network (I-CAAN), linking student activists at all levels to help them share ideas and strategies, recruit members, carry out campaigns, and otherwise help animals.
1998
Between 1998 and 1999, The HSUS works with other animal protection organizations and with the Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing to successfully lobby for humane reforms in the Environmental Protection Agency's High Production Volume Challenge Program, which would have subjected over one million animals to painful toxicity tests.
The HSUS launches the Pain and Distress Initiative, with the goal of eliminating pain and distress in animal experimentation by the year 2020.
1999
The HSUS brings together representatives of animal protection, zoo, sanctuary, and laboratory research communities to lobby the Federal government to provide funds for the retirement of surplus laboratory chimpanzees.
The HSUS documents the rise in animal ethics courses offered at American universities, and launches the annual Animals & Society Course Awards program to encourage the development of university courses that have a focus on animal protection.
The HSUS and its coalition partners succeed in gaining the introduction of federal legislation (S. 1495) to enhance the federal government's process for reviewing and approving alternative testing methods.
The HSUS releases 42 Ways to Help Animals in Laboratories, a booklet for animal activists.
The HSUS helps to organize the Third World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, Bologna, Italy.
2000
The HSUS distributes the inaugural issue of its quarterly newsletter, The Pain & Distress Report, to over 2,500 Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees and others in the field of animal research.
In July, following the launch of The HSUS Pain & Distress Initiative, the USDA proposes to define distress and update its pain and distress categories.
The HSUS works to pass the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection (CHIMP) Act, which will establish a national sanctuary system for chimpanzees no longer used in biomedical research and will allow post-research chimpanzees to live in naturalistic environments.
The HSUS releases the definitive book on The Use of Animals in Higher Education: Problems, Issues and Recommendations, which examines dissection and related practices from a humane and ethical perspective.
2001
A survey commissioned by The HSUS demonstrates that public support for animal research drops dramatically as the level of pain and distress experienced by the animals increases.
2002
The HSUS leads an animal protection coalition that successfully gained a formal voice at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which administers a test guidelines program that potentially affects millions of laboratory animals. The coalition is called the International Council for Animal Protection in OECD Programmes (ICAPO).
The HSUS coordinates the Fourth World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences, which draws several hundred scientists, animal protectionists, and others, who discuss the latest developments in alternative methods.
Following an HSUS critique of the use of carbon dioxide euthanasia, the most common procedure for euthanizing mice and rats used in research, the NIH publishes official guidance on the practice.
The HSUS enlists the help of renowned actress Mary Tyler Moore to urge the USDA to move forward with its 2000 proposal to improve the regulation of painful and distressful animal research.
The HSUS's efforts to end the use of chimpanzees in biomedical research receives a boost when we elicit a statement from an influential NIH official acknowledging that he could foresee the day when such research ended.
The HSUS expands the Animals and Society course awards program by recognizing innovative courses that do not fit readily into new or existing course categories but which are also exemplary in handling issues concerning the relationship between humans and animals.
