Fall 2010

Volume
59
Number
4
Fall 2010 AWI Quarterly Cover - Photo by Cathy Liss
About the Cover

Baby black rhinoceros, Maalim, is heading in for his evening bottle and then a good night’s sleep at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust outside Nairobi. Apparently abandoned by his mother, days-old Maalim (named for the ranger who rescued him) was found in the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary and taken to the Trust. Now at 20 months, he has grown quite a bit but is still just hip-high! Black rhinos, critically endangered with a total wild population believed to be around 4,200 animals, continue to be poached (along with white rhinos) for their horns. "Into Africa" on p. 14 chronicles the visit to the Trust and other Kenyan conservation program sites by AWI’s Cathy Liss.

Photo by Cathy Liss

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

A dramatic rescue occurred in September, when nearly 200 dogs and over 50 cats were saved from a North Carolina animal testing facility. The laboratory subsequently closed its doors after an undercover investigation documented abuse...
A revised version of The National Research Council’s Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (the Guide) has been released as a pre-publication draft, the first revision of the Guide since 1996.
Vanderbilt University had been fined over $8,000 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violations of the Animal Welfare Act in connection with three incidents of animal deaths at a university research facility.

Companion Animals

The conibear body gripping trap is designed to instantly kill by breaking the neck or back of an animal. It often doesn’t, and victims suffer greatly before they die.

Farmed Animals

Football is America's toughest major professional sport. Its players are renowned for their size, strength, agility and laser-like focus - as well as their ability to give and receive bruising, bone-wrenching, gut-busting hits and tackles.
A new report, Humane Slaughter Update: Comparing State and Federal Enforcement of Humane Slaughter Laws, has just been published by the Animal Welfare Institute.

Humane Education

A night out on the town could be fun...unless you are a cat lost and alone in the city. Kamie Cat’s Terrible Night is the latest collaboration between AWI and award-winning author and illustrator, Sheila...

Marine Life

On August 24, the Maui County Council voted unanimously in favor of a law curbing reckless reef fish extraction for the aquarium trade, representing the first such regulation in Hawaii.
During a special September meeting on biodiversity convened by the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the presidents of Palau and Honduras called on other nations to join them in saving the world’s shark...
In a chilly hotel ballroom in the Washington, D.C. suburbs this September, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) heard from the public on the question of whether a farm-raised Atlantic salmon named "AquaAdvantage" should be...

Terrestrial Wildlife

The unnecessary removal of wild horses has reached an alarming rate under the current administration. Thousands of horses have been and continue to be removed from their native range, and placed in short- and long-term...
Anson Wong, one of the world’s most infamous traders in illegal wildlife, has been jailed for attempting to smuggle a cache of snakes and a turtle into Indonesia from Malaysia.
This summer I was fortunate enough to fulfill one of my life’s dreams - a vacation in Africa! My family and I spent a week in Kenya. Though this was not a "working" vacation, I...
At first, it was just an unnatural morning quiet that residents noticed. Then birds were found dead by the hundreds.
UC Davis researcher Fraser Shilling and colleagues created a website for Californians to report on roadkill. The goal is to collect data that could help transportation planners and conservation managers design more wildlife-friendly roads.
When Massachusetts citizens voted overwhelmingly in 1996 to outlaw steel jaw leghold traps, other body-gripping traps, and snares for capturing fur-bearing animals, critics of the law loudly proclaimed that disaster was imminent.

Government Affairs

House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees have again expressed disappointment with the pace of efforts by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to end the purchase of dogs and cats from random source Class B dealers...
Some good news: The Senate unanimously passed legislation, introduced by Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Richard Burr (R-NC), to restore the ban on crush videos (see Summer 2010 AWI Quarterly , p...
The issue of ending horse slaughter continues to resonate with Congress.
In July, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure unanimously approved the Horse Transportation Safety Act (H.R. 305). This bill would make it illegal to haul horses in trailers with two levels, one stacked on...
Despite overwhelming support in the U.S. Senate for a bill to close loopholes in a law banning the finning of sharks, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) took it upon himself to block this and several other...

Reviews

A 2010 survey funded by the beef industry found that 64 percent of American consumers are familiar with the term "factory farming."
These two groundbreaking books - both edited by Marco Musiana, Luigi Boitani, and Paul Paquet, and published by the University of Calgary Press - offer perspectives on how humans can better coexist with wolves.