Summer 2019

Volume
68
Number
2
Summer 2019 Quarterly Cover
About the Cover

Scientific studies agree: Companion animals contribute to our emotional well-being and physical health. In turn, we do our best to keep them happy and healthy, and to help them experience a long and full life. Eventually, though, the march of time can bring on infirmity, and an ebbing in quality of their life for our beloved friends. When that time comes, it is more important than ever to do what we can to ease their burden and not prolong suffering. See page 14 to learn more about how best to care for aged and ailing pets.

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Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

Good Mouse Housekeeping: En Suite Bathroom Makes for Happier Mice
Mice have a strong preference to nest away from their own waste, and mice in laboratories should be housed in a system of cages that allows them to segregate space into clean and dirty areas...
Animals in Laboratories
Talented Rats Induce Empathy in Humans
In a laboratory, people matter: a key contributor to good animal welfare is the presence of compassionate caretakers. Research has shown that a “belief in animal mind” (BAM)—seeing animals as self-aware and capable of solving...
Animals in Laboratories
The Cost of Beauty
Cosmetics testing on animals is a few steps closer to becoming a practice of the past. The Canadian Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act (Bill S-214) has passed the Senate and will now move forward to the House...
Animals in Laboratories

Companion Animals

Bill Identifies Animal Abuse as Child Abuse Risk Factor
To facilitate better information about the co-occurrence of child abuse and animal abuse, Representatives Ann McLane Kuster (D-NH) and John Katko (R-NY) introduced the Child and Animal Abuse Detection and Reporting Act of 2019. Recognizing...
Companion Animals
Cross Reporting Workshops Address Animal Abuse and Family Violence
A highly successful series of workshops in March in Ohio has led to lasting connections that could improve interventions and lead to prevention in cases of animal abuse and family violence. AWI sponsored workshops entitled...
Companion Animals
Horse Protection Act Enforcement Plummets
Nearly 50 years ago, Congress passed the Horse Protection Act (HPA) to protect horses from the abusive practice of soring, which involves intentionally inflicting pain on the animal’s legs to produce an exaggerated high-stepping gait...
Companion Animals
Quality of Life Scale for Aging and Ailing Pets
We all want to do well by our furry companions. We want to have as much time as possible with them, but also want to make sure that they do not suffer when they are...
Companion Animals

Farm Animals

Business Benchmark Sees Welfare Gains
The 2018 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) was recently released, revealing measured improvements to corporate commitments on animal welfare. On the key issue of animal housing, 115 global food companies have made commitments...
Farm Animals
GE Fish to Hit Market
The Food and Drug Administration recently cleared the way for genetically engineered (GE) salmon to come to market in the United States. Dubbed “AquaAdvantage” and engineered by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies, the GE salmon is produced...
Farm Animals
Reducing the Use of Antibiotics in Farm Animals
In January 2018, a report released by the World Health Organization’s newly minted Global Antimicrobial Surveillance System revealed widespread antibiotic resistance among people with suspected bacterial infections in nations around the world. Commenting on the...
Farm Animals
USDA and FDA to Monitor Cultured Meat
The Food and Drug Administration and the US Department of Agriculture recently announced a formal agreement to jointly regulate cell-cultured meat and poultry products. Cultured meat is produced by the cultivation of animal cells in...
Farm Animals

Humane Education

Creative Kids Draw Endangered Creatures for “Save All Species” Campaign
AWI entered into a unique partnership with HarperCollins Children’s Books last year to produce educational materials on endangered species and what we can do to protect them. The partnership coincided with the launch of a...
Humane Education

Marine Life

Grim Toll for West Coast Gray Whales
As of mid-May, according to the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, 48 gray whales had been found dead along the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington, and Alaska. Scientists who examined carcasses think the deaths are likely...
Marine Life
HB Grandi Sheds Whaling Stigma at Seafood Expo
Each year, AWI and allies attend the Seafood Expo Global—the world’s largest seafood trade exposition—in Brussels. Companies from nearly 90 countries are represented, including many with ties to shark finning, fisheries bycatch of endangered and...
Marine Life
Seeking Release for Jailed Whales
AWI has been following the situation involving dozens of wild belugas and orcas captured in the Sea of Okhotsk last summer and held ever since in the so-called “whale jail” in Nakhodka, in Russia’s Far...
Marine Life
US Government Set to Approve Gray Whale Hunt
In 1999, the Makah Tribe of northwest Washington killed a gray whale, the first killed by the tribe since the late 1920s. The kill was made after the US government obtained a quota from the...
Marine Life

Wildlife

AWI Launches International Network to Combat Cruel Traps and Snares
Steel-jaw leghold traps and snares are a global brutality without a meaningful global response. Despite being prohibited in most countries, such devices are widely set in wildlife habitats across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They...
Wildlife
Botswana Lifts Ban on Elephant Hunting
To the intense dismay of conservationists and animal welfare advocates, Botswana has lifted a 5-year-old ban on elephant hunting. The Botswana government claims there is growing conflict between the animals and humans; many suspect the...
Wildlife
Canis rufus Reality: Red Wolf Status Confirmed
In March, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) released a report titled Evaluating the Taxonomic Status of the Mexican Gray Wolf and the Red Wolf. The report, commissioned by the US Fish...
Wildlife
CITES Meeting Postponed
It was our intent in this issue of the Quarterly to provide a summary of outcomes from the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species...
Wildlife
Operation Blizzard Nabs Lizard Smugglers
A highly coordinated international operation targeting the illegal trade in reptiles has resulted in the largest reptile bust to date. Coordinated by Interpol and Europol, “Operation Blizzard” (April 12–May 22) involved law enforcement agencies from...
Wildlife
Oral Rabies Vaccines Humanely Halting the Spread of Rabies
Rabies is a zoonotic disease caused by a deadly virus that attacks the central nervous system of mammals. The disease is usually transmitted by a bite from an infected animal. According to the Centers for...
Wildlife
UN Report Paints Stark Picture on Extinction Crisis
In May, the United Nations issued a grim assessment of the state of global biodiversity and ecosystem services, revealing that approximately 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, more than ever before...
Wildlife
USFWS Seeks to Strip Gray Wolves of Endangered Species Protections
In March, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a proposed rule to fully delist all gray wolves (Canis lupus) across the contiguous United States except the Mexican wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) in Arizona...
Wildlife

Government Affairs

Administration Persists with Deconstruction of Animal Welfare Act
The dismantling of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by the USDA continues unabated. The entire program—inspections, long-standing policies, and enforcement—is in shambles, leaving animals with virtually no protection. And gleaning what is happening is no...
Government Affairs
Bills to Protect Marine Species Advance in Senate
To protect some of the world’s most endangered marine species, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation unanimously approved two bills: the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act (S 877) and the Driftnet Modernization and...
Government Affairs
Circuses No Place for Lions, Tigers, and Bears
Representatives Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and David Schweikert (R-AZ) have reintroduced the Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act (TEAPSPA), which would amend the Animal Welfare Act to prohibit the use of exotic animals...
Government Affairs
End in Sight to Rubber-Stamped Licenses?
The US Department of Agriculture published a proposed rule in March that should end the rubber-stamping of renewals for dealers and exhibitors licensed under the Animal Welfare Act, regardless of whether they comply with the...
Government Affairs
House Committee Follows Correct Course on Right Whales
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Take Reduction Teams—composed of industry leaders, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, and state and federal officials—advise NMFS on reducing harm to marine mammals from fishing gear. In April, the Atlantic Large...
Government Affairs

In Remembrance

Jo Toole
AWI and the entire conservation community were heartbroken to learn of the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Joanna Toole, a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on departure from Addis Ababa...
In Remembrance

Reviews

Mama’s Last Hug
In Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves, de Waal illuminates the continuity of emotions between humans and other animals with perfect examples of grief, humor, empathy, guilt, shame, pride...
Reviews
Sharkwater: Extinction
Humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks every year. Sharkwater: Extinction—the second shark documentary directed and written by the late Rob Stewart—seeks to expose practices that contribute to the cruel and unsustainable slaughter of the...
Reviews
The Secret Wisdom of Nature
What are the consequences of gray wolves being returned to Yellowstone National Park? How do salmon fertilize trees? Why aren’t we neck-deep in dead animals? Do trees migrate? How do earthworms affect wild boar populations?
Reviews

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