For the second consecutive year, the nation’s largest animal protection organization, the Humane Society of the United States, has named Illinois the United States’ third most animal-friendly state in terms of legal protections.  Each year, as legislative sessions get under way across the country, the HSUS issues a report card concerning animal protection laws in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.  It examines how the states are performing on policies related to wildlife, farm animals, companion animals, puppy mills, animal cruelty and fighting, and animals in research.   About 70 policy ideas, such, as adoption of felony-level penalties for cockfighting, or humane breeding standards for dogs, are used as benchmarks.  They put all the information together and rank the states from top to bottom.  This year, as for all six years that of this report, California tops the list for having passed the most animal protection laws, while Oregon is second, Illinois.  The poorest performers were South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, Mississippi, and Idaho.  Altogether, working with animal advocates nationwide, the Humane Society helped pass 137 new state and local laws to protect animals last year, the largest number ever passed in one year.