Spring 2012

Volume
61
Number
2
Spring 2012 AWI Quarterly Cover - Photo by Eric Sambol
About the Cover

The Kermode, or "spirit" bear (Ursus americanus kermodei), is a subspecies of the American black bear who lives only in the red cedar, hemlock, and spruce rainforest of Canada's Pacific coast. About one tenth of the bears are white, owing to a unique recessive trait. A proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline project would carry oil from Alberta's tar sands through the coastal forests to a port in remote Kitimat, British Columbia—to be shipped via massive tankers that would thread the rocky, island-studded Inside Passage on their way to Asia. An oil spill in this region could be catastrophic for the bears and the salmon upon which they depend. As discussed below and in the article on page 6, tar sand and other oil development has enormous—but often ignored—impacts on animals.

Photo by Eric Sambol

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

The mission of the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care International (AAALAC) is to “enhance the quality of research, teaching, and testing by promoting humane, responsible animal care and use,” and the...

Farmed Animals

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...
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...
Researchers have found that goats develop their own “accents” as they grow older and move among social groups.
Chad and Jodi Ray, owners of Animal Welfare Approved Ray Family Farms, were honored by the Obama administration as “Champions of Change” in connection with the president’s Winning the Future initiative.

Humane Education

By Nancy Kellum Brown. In the science classroom, the commonly utilized tools of animal dissections and the removal of animals from their natural habitats are a staple of the learning environment. However, I am on...

Marine Life

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’s Mariko Terasaki and Kate O’Connell took part in the Boston Seafood Show, March 11 through 13. The show was attended by more than 900 seafood supply companies from more than 120 countries.
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...
The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin’s round and beakless head is striking—reminding some of the iconic Pac-Man. But unlike the enduring video game character, this dolphin has been in steady decline since the 1970s.
Alarm bells are ringing for the fate of all manta and mobula ray species because of increased demand for their fins and gill rakers—the apparatus by which they filter their food.
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.

Terrestrial Wildlife

The numbers are extremely bleak: bats in 20 states are now affected by white-nose syndrome (WNS) or the associated fungus, and the estimated death toll was recently revised upward to a staggering 5.7 million (or...
David Ausband and Mike Mitchell of the Montana Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit were recipients of a Christine Stevens Wildlife Award to study the effectiveness of “biofencing”—natural scent barriers—to keep wolves away from livestock and out...
The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and 99 other groups in 35 states formally petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in March to regulate toxic lead in hunting ammunition to protect public health and prevent...
A growing number of hunters in Minnesota are supporting legislation currently pending in the state that would restrict the use of traps intended to catch and kill furbearing animals.
During a six-week period in January and February, a brazen and well-organized gang of poachers slaughtered at least half of the roughly 400 resident savannah elephants in Cameroon’s Bouba N’Djida National Park.
President Obama denied a permit in January for the Keystone XL pipeline’s proposed route over the border from Canada, across the critically important Ogallala Aquifer, on down to the Gulf of Mexico. At an Oklahoma...
For three weeks in March, Jefferson salamanders have the right of way on a busy stretch of road in Burlington, Ontario. Only about 100 of the threatened amphibians (known locally as “Jeffies”) exist in the...
Like some three-headed monster from a classic Japanese horror movie, a trio of proposed pipeline projects would stream what has become known as “the world’s dirtiest oil” out of northeastern Alberta’s infamous Athabasca tar sands—posing...
Wildlife consultant Camilla Fox interviews Carter Niemeyer, a former federal predator control agent and author of the award-winning Wolfer: A Memoir.

Government Affairs

In March, AWI staff led efforts on several animal protection measures before the Illinois General Assembly. HB 1607—a bill to prohibit tail docking of cattle, the inhumane practice of partially amputating the animals' tails—was approved...
This past year has brought heightened attention to a very special class of veteran—the Military Working Dog (MWD)—especially when it was reported that an MWD was part of the team that rousted out Osama Bin...
The breeding and sale of big cats as “pets” has long been a problem in this country, where an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 large cats are privately owned.
A new rule proposed by the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) would allow round-the-clock hunting of coyotes and feral pigs throughout North Carolina. Hunting under cover of darkness with the use of artificial lights...
AWI staff traveled to Rhode Island in February to testify in favor of S 2192 and S 2032, bills to ban tail docking of cattle and to create an online animal abuser registry.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to testify before Congressional committees as they begin to determine spending levels for Fiscal Year 2013 (beginning October 2012), AWI asked for continued support for the U.S. Department of Justice’s...