Winter 2010

Volume
59
Number
1
Winter 2010 AWI Quarterly Cover - Photo by Rinie Van Meurs/Foto Natura/Minden Picture
About the Cover

Alone on a disappearing ice floe, an Arctic polar bear stands at the precipice of global warming. With life as he knows it threatened by greenhouse gasses, and resulting rising temperatures and declining sea ice, in addition to international trade in the species and its parts, the earth’s largest terrestrial carnivore (called Isbjorn, or ice bear, in Norwegian) faces extinction from a world that has sustained him for 100,000 years. See page 10 for information on climate change and page 13 for more on endangered species listings.

Photo by Rinie Van Meurs/ Foto Natura/ Minden Pictures

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

At the University of Notre Dame we have a system in place that allows the principle investigators to utilize our trained laboratory animal technicians and registered veterinary technicians to perform routine animal procedures such as...
The six infant orangutans, packed into small crates labeled “birds,” were covered in vomit and feces.

Farmed Animals

Vermont-based Bushway Packing Inc. has been suspended from slaughtering days-old male dairy calves for veal.
Though seven states have passed legislation to phase out common industry practices that confine farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up and fully extend...
Poultry do not have muscular diaphragms. Consequently when birds are hung upside down for shackling purposes, abdominal organs compress their hearts.

Humane Education

The Humane Education Network’s 20th annual "A Voice for Animals" high school essay contest runs February 1 through March 31. The contest gives students the opportunity to express concerns about animal welfare and present solutions.

Marine Life

International trade in wild-caught Solomon Islands Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins continues with little sign of ending so long as the demand for dolphinariums persists.
Infamous for her “take no prisoners” stance on wildlife from wolves to polar bears, whales and more, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin objected in 2008 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service...

Terrestrial Wildlife

It's hard to imagine what the passengers of US Airways flight 1549 experienced in January 2009.
The illicit bushmeat trade—the sale of wild animal meat—continues to thrive and even escalate despite efforts by scientists, conservationists and health officials to stem the tide.
Last December, Representatives of 193 governments gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark for the 15th United Nations (UN) Climate Change conference in what marked the largest gathering of heads of state and governments in UN history.
In March, representatives from 184 countries, scientists and advocates will gather in Doha, Qatar for the 15th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora...
Early last May in the heart of coastal British Columbia’s Great Bear Rainforest, an area that safeguards one of the planet’s last grizzly bear-salmon strongholds, my team from the Raincoast Conservation Foundation set out to...
Zimbabwe faces expulsion from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) unless it quickly gains control of rhino poaching within its borders.
Texas real estate scion and former chairman of Perot Systems, H. Ross Perot Jr. has met his match over a white rhino trophy head in a battle with South African wildlife officials.
Saola is a species of Asian wild cattle discovered in 1992 and considered one of the world's rarest mammals.

Government Affairs

Responding to the National Academy of Sciences report on Class B dealers (see AWI Quarterly Summer 2009), both the House and Senate reports accompanying the bills funding the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for fiscal...
At least 47 Canada lynx have been illegally trapped in Maine over the past decade and despite a designation as threatened on the federal endangered species list, a court has declined to accord lynx adequate...
Nearly one year after the groundbreaking lawsuit for elephant mistreatment brought against Ringling Bros.' parent company Feld Entertainment, Inc. (FEI) went to trial, the US District Court for the District of Columbia has ruled that...
In a precedent setting decision, a federal court judge has issued a comprehensive ruling that an industrial wind energy farm in Greenbrier County, WV would kill and injure endangered Indiana bats in violation of the...
AWI supports Representative Steve Israel’s Poison-Free Poultry Act of 2009, H.R. 3624, introduced September 22, 2009. H.R. 3624 bans roxarsone, an arsenic compound used as a growth-promoting additive to poultry and swine feed, which poses...
On November 19, the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee passed the Shark Conservation Act of 2009.
On December 11, 2009 the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works approved S. 373, a bill "to include constrictor snakes of the species Python genera as an injurious animal" under the Lacey Act, thus...

Reviews

The topic of empathy is certainly timely given the conflicts of our modern world. In The Age of Empathy , Frans de Waal asks us to consider the role of empathy in political and social...
The very title of Andrew Linzey’s book is likely to evoke an emotional response, but Why Animal Suffering Matters makes a rational, ethics-based case for treating animals humanely.