2024: a year of victories for animals Around the World

Posted on 14/01/2025

Not just environmental disasters and dramatic stories: 2024 ended with a series of exciting milestones for our animal friends. Let's retrace together the victories achieved thanks to the commitment of associations and citizens who fought with enthusiasm and passion

a year of victories: the biggest wins for animals

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2024 was not only a year of disasters, wars, and environmental crises. Fortunately, we also witnessed important victories for animals in Italy and worldwide that gave us hope for a future free of cruelty.

Let’s take a look at the most important battles won by dogs, bulls, cetaceans, and many other creatures that can finally catch their breath.

New Zealand bans cruel Greyhound racing

New Zealand has officially banned the cruel sport of greyhound racing. The ban, which will be fully in place by 2026, was initiated because of the high number of injuries and deaths among the dogs. The New Zealand government said the rate of injuries remains unacceptably high, making this decision necessary to protect the animals.

Greyhound racing has long been a contentious part of the country’s sports and betting culture. In 2021 alone, 232 greyhounds died, and around 900 were injured. These shocking statistics fanned growing public outrage, leading to this long-awaited ban.

Belgium says goodbye to dolphinariums

The exploitation masquerading as entertainment is finally dying! At the end of 2024, Belgium finally forbade dolphinariums. After restrictions were enforced in Brussels and Wallonia, Flanders joined the process.

Over the course of the next few years, the final Bruges marine park will be permanently closed to the keeping of captive dolphins. Aside from the prohibition against any new facility opening, the government has also proposed a number of other changes that enhance the lives of the current captive animals. Such changes include not allowing them to breed or import dolphins, as well as being obliged to build an outdoor pool by 2027.

Stricter penalties for pet abandonment in Italy

The newly instated, highly debated Highway Code of Italy has one very important provision: harsher fines for abandoning animals. In addition to the criminal charges, offenders will have to face a driver’s license suspension ranging from six months up to one year. Those who leave an animal on the road could be imprisoned as long as seven years.

Moreover, in the case where the abandonment causes an accident and leads to injury or death, the abandoning party will face charges of vehicular homicide and serious bodily harm.

The end of bullfighting in Colombia

Colombia has finally done away with the obsolete, brutal sport of bullfighting. After a long battle by animal rights groups and citizens, the shows will be banned starting in 2027. With this decision, Colombia is now the sixth Latin American country to ban this cruel tradition that puts both bulls and people in danger.

Before the ban takes complete effect, the government will have absorbed the workers of the industry into other work and the bullfighting arenas of the country converted for sports and cultural events.

Berkeley becomes the first U.S. City to ban factory farming

In 2024, Berkeley became the first city in the United States to ban factory farming. A citywide referendum came out on the side of activists, marking a major victory for animals and the environment.

The measure passed with over 60% of the vote, marking a groundbreaking step that may lead to similar action taken around the world.

Costa Rica closes all Zoos

No more animals in cages! Costa Rica has just closed its last two state-run zoos, eleven years after passing a historic law banning the captivity of all wild animals. Hundreds of animals, from jaguars and crocodiles to spider monkeys and sloths, had been housed in these facilities.

But that’s not all: where the Simón Bolívar Zoo once stood, a new green space will be opened right in the middle of the capital, similar to a botanical garden.

Wikie, the orca that says hello: a breakthrough in animal intelligence

An experiment on Wikie, a trained orca, shows that these marine mammals are capable of imitating human sounds and vocalizations of other orcas: a discovery that pushes us to reflect on the value of empathy and interspecific communication

The sound is unmistakable—clear and well-articulated: “Amy.” But it’s not a human voice pronouncing the name. It’s an orca.

Wikie, the orca at the center of this groundbreaking research, has stunned scientists by mimicking human sounds, including words like “hello,” “one, two,” and even “bye bye.”

Marine mammals are already known for their remarkable intelligence, but Wikie’s ability has surpassed all expectations. During the study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Wikie successfully reproduced sounds she had never heard before, including other orcas’ calls and even a noise resembling a raspberry.

According to Josep Call, a professor at the University of St. Andrews, this vocal ability sheds new light on the social dynamics of wild orcas. “The distinct dialects we observe among different pods could be the result of vocal imitation among individuals,” he explains. He adds, “What struck us was the flexibility with which Wikie imitated sounds so different from her natural repertoire.”

Orcas and other animals that mimic humans

Wikie is not alone in this feat. Other animals have also demonstrated the ability to mimic human sounds, though they use different vocal mechanisms. Elephants, beluga whales, parrots, and orangutans have all exhibited similar skills. For instance, the beluga whale Noc modified the use of his nasal cavities to produce human-like vocalizations, while the Indian elephant Koshik inserted his trunk into his mouth to articulate Korean words like “hello” and “sit.”

Despite these impressive abilities, only a few species can mimic human sounds with accuracy. This skill requires a complex interaction between the brain and vocal apparatus. It is precisely the orca’s anatomy—so different from that of humans—that makes Wikie’s case even more extraordinary.

How Wikie learned to imitate human speech

Wikie lives in a French aquarium, where she was trained to respond to the command “copy.” Before the experiment, researchers worked to refine her ability to mimic familiar sounds, such as those made by her calf, Moana.

Then, Wikie was exposed to entirely new sounds: six human words, including “hello,” “bye bye,” and “Amy,” as well as unfamiliar orca calls. The result? Wikie successfully replicated each sound with a surprising success rate. Some vocalizations were imitated on the first attempt, while words like “hello” were accurately repeated multiple times.

An independent team of six evaluators confirmed that the sounds Wikie mimicked were indeed similar to the originals, eliminating any doubts about the validity of the findings.

Rethinking our connection to the animal world

Beyond adding a new dimension to our understanding of orca behavior, this study invites us to reconsider our relationship with the animal kingdom. Wikie’s ability to mimic human speech reminds us that communication is not exclusive to our species. As dolphin communication expert Diana Reiss points out:

“Animals possess a complexity that we do not yet fully understand.”

Irene Pepperberg, renowned for her studies on parrots, considers this research a significant step toward deepening our understanding of animal intelligence. Orcas, already known for their extraordinary social structures, once again prove to be more like us than we imagined—capable of learning, imitating, and perhaps, in some way, connecting with other species. And if Wikie says “hello” to us, maybe it’s time we respond—not just with words, but with action to protect these incredible creatures and their habitats.

Source: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences