AWI Quarterly » 2012 Spring

Shelby Grebenc runs an Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) egg operation in Broomfield, Colorado. Every morning, she gets up at dawn to take care of her 130 pasture-raised Leghorns, Ameraucanas, Rhode Island Reds, and Plymouth Rocks—plus some “strays” that people have dropped on her doorstep... which, incidentally, is how the farm came by its colorful name: Happy Chapped Chicken Butt Farm.

Research performed by AWI suggests that Country of Origin Labeling (“COOL”) may reduce the suffering of animals by curbing the long-distance transport of animals from Canada and Mexico.

In a joint study, scientists at Johns Hopkins’ Center for a Livable Future (CLF) and Arizona State University found evidence suggesting that a class of antibiotics previously banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for poultry production is still in use. The antibiotics detected—fluoroquinolones—were found in 8 of 12 samples of feather meal in a multi-state study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Online retailer Amazon.com removed whale meat products from its Japanese website in February after a single day of public protests and a stern rebuke from the U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

AWI previously reported on our efforts to dissuade tourists from the United States and other countries from bringing whale meat purchased in Iceland back home (See Winter 2011 AWI Quarterly). Joined now by almost 100 other NGOs around the world, we are urging a number of governments whose citizens travel in significant numbers to Iceland to warn travelers that importing whale products is illegal.

Peru’s northwest shoreline above Chiclayo is beautifully desolate—sandy dunes running into the surf for over a hundred miles. In January, locals reported dead dolphins washing up on the beaches, but little notice was generated.