AWI Quarterly » 2009 Summer

The Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act (H.R. 1018), introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), will restore the protections for America’s wild horses and burros that were stripped away in recent years.

At the request of the Soliciter General, the Supreme Court will review a case from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia, Pa., which overturned a conviction involving so-called "crush videos" and called the law prohibiting interstate trafficking in such footage an unconstitutional infringement on free speech.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced in June its intent to eradicate the state’s mute swan population by "reducing it to as low a level as can be achieved."

In an exciting new development, the North Carolina Natural Hog Growers Association (NCNHGA) and Fudge Family Farms have begun requiring all of their member farms to be accredited by the Animal Welfare Approved program, whose standards for pigs necessitate pasture access and prohibit crates and tail-docking.

Although wolves may not have drastic economic repercussions on the livestock industry as a whole, they can substantially affect individual ranchers when depredations become chronic.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Mountain Communities for Responsible Energy, and a West Virginia local conservationist filed a complaint against Beech Ridge Energy and its parent company in June, contending that their massive industrial wind power facility being built in Greenbrier County, W.Va., will unlawfully injure and kill the endangered Indiana bats who live near the project site.

A three-month-old fox kit in the U.K. was rescued by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) this spring after enduring about two weeks caught in a body snare.