Summer 2011

Volume
60
Number
3
Summer 2011 AWI Quarterly Cover - Photo by Dr. Tom Gehring
About the Cover

Wolves and other predators may not find this Great Pyrenees pup too menacing at the moment, but once grown he may stand watch over cattle on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. A growing number of pasture-based farmers are turning to this centuries-old dog breed as a way to protect livestock without resorting to lethal predator control. On page 6, Dr. Tom Gehring of Central Michigan University talks about how his AWI-sponsored studies in the field with livestock protection dogs have made believers out of some Upper Peninsula farmers. In North Carolina, Dawn and Stephen Robertson use Great Pyrenees to watch over the sheep on their Animal Welfare Approved East Fork Farm (see page 8).

Photo by Dr. Tom Gehring

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

Three Rhesus macaques died gruesome deaths in late May, at the AAALAC-accredited New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana.
The new, eighth edition of the National Academy of Sciences' Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals reflects much that has changed since publication of the last edition 15 years ago concerning notions...
Video images taken by an undercover investigator with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA ) at the Professional Laboratory and Research Services (PLRS) facility in North Carolina documented laboratory workers throwing, hitting, kicking...
There is an increasing tendency in animal research to ask the question, "Why not?"

Companion Animals

On March 11, an earthquake and subsequent tsunami destroyed entire communities on the coast of northeastern Japan, killing over 15,000 people.
After almost two years and tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars, the Government Accountability Office (GAO ) has released its report, HORSE WELFARE: Action Needed to Address Unintended Consequences from Cessation of Domestic Slaughter with...

Farmed Animals

East Fork Farm is nestled deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, about 25 miles north of Asheville. As farm settings go, it doesn't get much more scenic. Giles Morris, a recent visitor...
Live chickens and other birds have been sold at the Heart of the City Farmers' Market at the United Nations Plaza in San Francisco for the past two decades.
Livestock producers throughout the world can be negatively impacted by stock losses due to predators and wildlife-transmitted diseases.
A recent study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases reported wide contamination of meat with strains of drug-resistant bacteria.

Humane Education

A Florida middle school teacher has been disciplined after taunting a 13-year-old student for choosing not to dissect a frog during science class.
So far, nine schools in California and Maine have agreed to end animal dissections in response to a challenge issued by AWI, Save the Frogs! and Digital Frog International.

Marine Life

While populations of top marine predator fish like tuna, billfish and sharks plummet, Stanford University researchers have found that anchovies, sardines, and other small fish are at an equal or greater risk of suffering a...
Danube sturgeons - whose roe is prized as a source of caviar - have become so critically endangered that caviar exports from natural fish populations (as opposed to farmed fish) from all Lower Danube countries...
Mexico and the Bahamas joined the list of countries this summer that have banned shark fishing within their territorial waters.
It took three tries for the pilot to land in Barrow, Alaska in the heavy fog. To the native Iñupiat, Barrow is known as Ukpea ġvik (or Utqiaġvik ), which means "place to hunt snowy...

Terrestrial Wildlife

In Indiana, one must have a permit to possess wildlife outside of hunting season. Apparently, though, "possess" is a very flexible word.
In this country, a plate of frog legs (or "frogs' legs" as the dish is commonly called outside the U.S.) usually brings to mind France or the French-influenced regions of the American South.
Four nature reserves, covering over 200,000 square miles in western China, have joined forces to protect endangered Tibetan antelopes through anti-poaching operations.
For the time being, big trucks will not barrel through Serengeti National Park, a World Heritage Site and location of one of the world’s most important animal migration routes.
Yasuni National Park, part of the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle, is probably the most biodiverse place on the planet.

Government Affairs

Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have reintroduced a bill to ban horse slaughter.
As an additional backstop against resumption of horse slaughter in the U.S., the House has passed an FY 2012 appropriations bill that includes an amendment offered by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA ) prohibiting the USDA...
While it has been necessary to fend off numerous attacks on animal welfare in state legislatures this year (See Spring 2011 AWI Quarterly ), there have also been positive developments benefitting animals.
As white-nose syndrome (WNS) was confirmed in yet another state - Maine - some Members of Congress were coming to the bats’ rescue.

Reviews

The inspiring, selfless work of Dr. Biruté Galdikas of Orangutan Foundation International and Dame Daphne Sheldrick of The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is showcased in the Warner Bros. Pictures/IMAX film Born To Be Wild .
While we humans on the whole have yet to acknowledge our moral obligation to other species and to behave accordingly, there is some evidence that the idea of such a moral obligation is gaining a...