New research by scientists in South Florida indicates that a high percentage of stranded dolphins were almost deaf at the time of stranding. The cause of the near-deafness is unknown.
I was in high school when John Gleiber met AWI’s founding president, Christine Stevens, at a dinner party. Christine invited John to her home the next day. It was 1975 and John was offered a job over tea. He became one of an intimate group of employees who worked diligently in the basement of Christine’s home.
On November 7, 2010, two weeks after his 91st birthday, long-time AWI colleague and whale advocate Robbins Wolcott Barstow, Jr. died at his home in Wethersfield, Connecticut.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has created a manatee refuge for all of Kings Bay, the site of the animal’s largest winter habitat in Florida.
The 112th Congress is under way. Stay informed by signing up for AWI eAlerts at www.awionline.org/takeaction, and meet the members with the new Congressional Directory from AWI (available in March - to order, call or visit the AWI website).
There is good news to report from the last days of the 111th Congress: Legislation to close loopholes in the 11-year-old ban on shark finning finally passed and was signed by the president. With one exemption (which AWI opposed), the new law prohibits the removal of shark fins at sea within all U.S. waters.
Anticoagulant rat poisons - the number one method of rodent control used worldwide - may take a week or more to kill rodents. During this interim, the rodents continue to move around, leaving predatory wildlife species at risk of consuming poisoned prey.
Poultry company OK Foods announced it intends to begin killing chickens by decompression, using a technique referred to as "vacuum stunning" or "low-atmospheric pressure killing."
Disasters like floods, roof collapses and fires are not uncommon occurrences on factory farms. And given the large numbers of animals confined on these operations, such emergencies can kill tens - even hundreds - of thousands of living beings in a matter of minutes.
