AWI Quarterly

In a surprising move, the US Departments of Agriculture, Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security jointly announced the creation of a “coordinated effort to crackdown on chronic dog welfare violators” with a focus on dog fighting and Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations at puppy mills. As part of this effort, the DOJ is

In March, the House Committee on Agriculture finalized its version of the long-overdue farm bill—HR 7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026—and it is a mixed bag for animal welfare. On the plus side, it reauthorizes until 2031 the Protecting Animals with Shelter grant program, which helps service providers expand their capacity

The US Department of Agriculture announced in January that it would delay implementation of Horse Protection Act (HPA) regulations until year’s end—the third postponement since regulations aimed at eliminating the soring of Tennessee walking horses were finalized in May 2024. Soring methods include applying caustic chemicals to flesh, using chains to strike against sore legs,

The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries held an oversight hearing in December entitled “Sea Lion Predation in the Pacific Northwest.” While several members of Congress and witnesses claimed that expanding the killing of pinnipeds is necessary to save endangered salmon, others were aligned with AWI’s position that the lethal take

The Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA), enacted in 2022, ushered in historic protections for lions, tigers, and other big cats. However, a new bill in Congress, HR 7159, seeks to weaken these hard-won protections and line the pockets of special interests at the expense of big cats and public safety. The BCPSA protects communities from

The Trump administration is seeking to reinstate four regulations issued in 2019 during President Trump’s first term that severely weakened critical Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections. These regulations curtailed protections afforded to threatened species, allowed economic considerations to be weighed when deciding whether to list a species, significantly undermined the process for designating protected habitat,

In September, Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) reintroduced the Humane Transport of Farmed Animals Act (HR 5286)—bipartisan legislation to improve transport conditions for farmed animals in the United States. The bill would establish fitness for travel standards—mirroring those already in place for livestock exported abroad—to prevent animals who are sick, injured, disabled, or are otherwise in

In December, the House Natural Resources Committee voted to advance HR 4776, the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development (SPEED) Act. Targeting the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), our country’s basic charter for protecting the environment, the SPEED Act would narrow the scope of federal actions that receive an environmental review, as well as limit

For more than half a century, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) has played a crucial role in safeguarding marine mammals from myriad threats—from entanglement in fishing gear to human-caused noise pollution—enabling many vulnerable populations to recover. Despite its success and long-standing bipartisan support, in late July, Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK) released draft legislation that

The Ejiao Act (HR 5544), led by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA), was reintroduced in September to protect donkeys from the inhumane trade in their hides. Donkey hides are boiled to produce a gelatin known as “ejiao” that is used in traditional Chinese medicines and added to supplements, aphrodisiacs, cosmetics, and food items. An estimated 5

In October, AWI assisted with a fly-in that brought over 200 farmers to Capitol Hill to meet with congressional offices in support of California’s Proposition 12, which sets minimum space requirements for egg-laying hens, breeding pigs, and veal calves while also prohibiting the in-state sale of eggs, pork, and veal that do not meet those

Imagine not being able to lift your head for hours on end in a moving vehicle. For horses forced to travel in double-deck trailers, this is the reality. While experts agree that the proper ceiling height for horse trailers is 7–8 feet, double-deck trailers, which are designed to transport shorter livestock such as cattle and

The House Natural Resources Committee has continued to pursue a markedly anti-wildlife agenda by teeing up action on an array of bills to weaken and eliminate protections under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).  The committee spent July holding meetings on bills that would delist the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

On June 24, the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act (HR 4108), was reintroduced by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). This bill would prohibit the possession or use of body-gripping devices, such as steel-jaw leghold traps, Conibears, and snares, within the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) with limited exceptions. The NWRS is home to more than 380

In encouraging news, both Senate and House fiscal year 2026 Agriculture Appropriations bills winding their way through Congress contain provisions that continue to bar horse slaughter operations in the United States. The House and Senate Interior Appropriations bills also maintain long-standing protections against the slaughter and lethal control of wild horses—provisions absent from the administration’s

On any given day, you’ll find Nancy Blaney, AWI’s director of government affairs, sprinting through the halls of Congress, camped out at a committee hearing, and/or intercepting a potential ally at a reception to bend an ear. It’s never been an easy job. Early in her career, Nancy traveled to her home state of Pennsylvania

Ridglan Farms, one of two remaining US breeders of beagles for research (and the country’s second largest dog breeder overall), faces grave allegations of animal cruelty following release of footage taken by activists who broke into its Wisconsin facility, as well as corroborating eyewitness accounts from employee whistleblowers. Allegations range from neglect, failure to provide

In line with its recently announced initiative to prioritize human-based research (see AWI Quarterly, summer 2025), the NIH announced in July that moving forward, all new calls for funding from the agency, known as notices of funding opportunities (NOFOs), that relate to animal experimentation must now also “support human-focused approaches such as clinical trials, real world data, or

We are delighted to report that on July 15, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled in our favor in our lawsuit to protect thousands of wild horses in Wyoming and preserve millions of acres of their designated habitat. Represented by the public interest law firm Eubanks & Associates, AWI, American Wild

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of California in July, alleging that a combination of its “voter initiatives, legislative enactments, and regulations” have contributed to higher egg prices. In particular, the legal challenge singles out California’s Proposition 12 (passed by nearly 63 percent of the state’s voters in 2018), which prohibits