The 65th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) opened on Monday, September 15th in the Slovenian city of Portorož. This is the first “plenary” IWC meeting since IWC64 in 2012 when the Commission decided to have biennial meetings, although its Scientific Committee continues to meet annually—and met most recently in May 2014 in Bled, Slovenia.
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The 2016 Clark R. Bavin Law Enforcement Award recipients are as follows.
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The 66th meeting of the International Whaling Commission opened today in Portoroz, Slovenia. This year, the IWC celebrates the 70th anniversary of its founding treaty and the 30th year of its commercial whaling ban. Topics to be discussed include the creation of the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, the importance of whales to ecosystems, and the IWC’s management of subsistence whaling. Read AWI’s reports from the meeting here.
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On September 10, the 67th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), hosted by the government of Brazil, opens, with AWI again in attendance.
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The International Union for Conservation of Nature assessed more than 740 newly recognized bird species in 2016 and found that 13 of these species were already extinct—before they’d even been recognized as distinct species.
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469,525 farm animals were killed in barn fires in 2019.
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The 2019 Clark R. Bavin Law Enforcement Award recipients are as follows.
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1,675,195 farm animals were killed in barn fires in 2020.
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681,825 farm animals were killed in barn fires in 2021.
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518,973 farm animals were killed in barn fires in 2022.
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The 2022 Clark R. Bavin Law Enforcement Award recipients are as follows.
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Since the International Whaling Commission last met in person in 2018, it has achieved two significant milestones: the 75th anniversary of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in December 2021 and the 40th anniversary of the decision to prohibit commercial whaling worldwide (the moratorium) in July 2022. AWI and our colleagues in the conservation and animal protection community were proud to celebrate both landmarks and to launch a new Vision for the IWC for its next 50 years.
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486,240 farmed animals were killed in barn fires in 2023.
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1,529,587 farmed animals killed in barn fires in 2024.
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383,079 farmed animals killed in barn fires so far in 2025.
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More than 240 environmental, animal welfare and conservation organizations sent a letter to House and Senate leadership today, calling on them to reject riders in Fiscal Year 2018 Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency appropriations legislation that would erode the Endangered Species Act and other safeguards for wildlife. The letter comes as Congress is poised to pass yet another continuing resolution that could pave the way for negotiations to begin on a final omnibus appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2018.
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This week, a group of prominent whale and dolphin biologists from across the globe, including Dr. Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), sent a letter urging a Russian federal agency to stop capturing free-ranging orcas in the Sea of Okhotsk for sale to marine parks overseas.
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Today, a group of prominent marine mammal biologists from across the globe, including Dr. Naomi Rose of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), sent a second letter requesting that Russia release the remaining 80+ beluga whales and 10 orcas held in the “whale jail” in Russia’s Far East and to stop capturing orcas and belugas in the Sea of Okhotsk for sale to marine parks in Russia and abroad.
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Enrichment—adding complexity to an animal’s environment—is an essential element of improving the lives of animals in captivity. Species-appropriate toys, puzzles, and structures, for example, can provide cognitive stimulation and opportunities to engage in natural behaviors. Animals deprived of such opportunities may engage in abnormal, often harmful activities out of boredom and frustration.
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The US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program reported last week that it had shot, trapped, and poisoned more than 400,000 native animals in 2021.
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The 40th anniversary of the global ban on commercial whaling has been marked today, with a plaque unveiled to hail one of the most significant conservation victories of all time.
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In a strong bipartisan showing, more than 60 members of Congress sent a letter this week to the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, urging them to shut down live wildlife markets and ban international trade of live wildlife not intended for conservation purposes.
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On the National Day of the Horse, the Animal Welfare Institute and the American Wild Horse Campaign, joined by more than 70,000 supporters, petitioned Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to stop the largest wild horse roundup in US history, which is occurring in Wyoming’s Checkerboard region.
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