Animal Law Alumni Spotlight | Kitty Block, Humane Society of the US

Join us to hear from GW Law alum Kitty Block, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Humane Society of the United States and President of Humane Society International. Kitty will discuss some of her long career in animal protection and her start at GW Law. After the presentation we will have an informal networking session with some light refreshments.

The event will take place in the Student Conference Center which is on the 2nd floor of Lisner. The easiest entrance to that building is at 2023 G Street. The doors are all key card entry, but a person will be waiting there to let you in and direct you upstairs to the event.

is the CEO and president of the Humane Society of the United States and the CEO of Humane Society International and Humane Society Legislative Fund. A lifelong animal protection advocate and the first woman to lead the Humane Society family of organizations, Block drives the advancement of the organizations’ shared mission: ending the cruelest practices toward animals, rescuing and caring for animals in crisis, and expanding the influence and impact of the animal protection movement worldwide.

Under Block’s leadership, the HSUS helped to secure a historic 2023 victory in the United States Supreme Court, which upheld California's Proposition 12—the nation's strongest farm animal protection law. Her unwavering dedication to animals has yielded other significant achievements, including the 2022 enactment of the Big Cat Public Safety Act (2022), Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act, and the End Wildlife Trafficking Act at the federal level; the passage of nearly 500 laws in cities and states across the U.S. to end pet store sales of puppies from puppy mills; the commitment of multiple major fashion designers and global retailers to drop fur from their apparel lines; the organization of complex and historic emergency responses to help animals in natural disasters; the monumental 2022 rescue of nearly 4,000 beagles from a Virginia-based mass breeding facility that supplied laboratories with animals for testing; the closure of 18 dog meat farms in South Korea and the introduction of legislation to ban dog meat farming there; and a milestone accomplishment in 2022 as the HSUS's ongoing work to guarantee access to pet care to families in underserved communities reached its one millionth service to a pet in need.

Block has represented the HSUS and HSI at meetings of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the International Whaling Commission and the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission. She led the organizations’ efforts to secure protection for dolphins via successful litigation and landmark dolphin-safe tuna legislation. In addition, she was one of the architects of a successful lawsuit over commercial whaling brought against Japan by Australia in the International Court of Justice.

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