In this issue: an in-depth analysis of China's stunning decision to shut down its ivory industry; meet Isaac, a sanctuary monkey with a rather surprising imagination; laboratory animal care personnel discuss ways to improve the lives of rabbits in research; meanwhile, the USDA scrubs its website of enforcement records and shrugs at horrendous Animal Welfare Act violations by a large animal research conglomerate.
In this issue, AWI examines the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s efforts to ease restrictions on importation of elephant, lion, and other animal trophies from Africa—even as the president expresses his displeasure at the move, and major airlines take a decisive stand against carrying such trophies. Get the latest from CITES Standing Committee deliberations aimed at protecting animals affected by legal and illegal international trade. Read how Costa Rica is raising the bar when it comes to wild animal welfare laws. And for students: A Voice for Animals contest is back!
AWI’s analysis of what’s at stake at the May meeting of nations in Sri Lanka to discuss CITES—the primary international treaty to protect wildlife subject to trade. Meet John Thompson, this year’s recipient of AWI’s Schweitzer Medal, and learn how he has helped transform law enforcement’s response to animal cruelty crimes. Get a first look at the new, expanded edition of The Case Against Marine Mammals in Captivity report.
In this issue: what is lost when US environmental laws are weakened; behind-the-scenes chicanery that is killing horses at US racetracks; the inexorable, welcome decline of commercial whaling; unchecked animal abuse at the nation’s primary supplier of chinchillas for research; kind souls knitting nests to help rehabilitate wildlife. Also, for researchers: apply now for grants to study ways to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. And for high school students: enter the “A Voice for Animals” contest!
A call to end mink farming—a cruel, outdated industry that is also an incubator for COVID-19. AWI launches a challenge before the Federal Trade Commission to a deceptive animal welfare label claim by a prominent poultry producer. The USFWS is told (in court) to get it in gear on red wolf recovery. AWI scholarship winners take animal welfare ethic to college, while cuttlefish flex their brains by passing the famed marshmallow test. A new whale species is identified in the Gulf of Mexico.
Amid the terrible humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, many Ukrainian animals are suffering the devastation of war as well. Learn what AWI is doing to help, and how you can help too. Also in this issue: Namibia’s controversial sale of wild-caught elephants to a foreign zoo. Gray wolves regain some Endangered Species Act protections, while grizzly bears face continued efforts to remove protections. Hawaii becomes the first US state to ban shark fishing. And a tribute to the late Senator Bob Dole, one of Capitol Hill’s true animal welfare champions.
A retrospective on the Christine Stevens Wildlife Awards—advancing win-win solutions for wildlife and people. Animal care staff recount personal triumphs in the ongoing effort to provide better lives for animals in research. AWI seeks significant reforms to USDA oversight of animal slaughter. More scrutiny over potential wildlife trafficking in Cambodia-to-US primate pipeline. Birds in pet trade and exhibits gain long-overdue Animal Welfare Act protections. AWI fondly remembers three marine life champions.
AWI helps secure protections for Caribbean wildlife, reports on conditions for captive orcas in China, and pushes for US standards to prevent grueling long-distance transport of newborn calves and others unfit to travel. In a Colorado corral, tragic consequences of the BLM’s wild horse management failures. National Primate Research Centers seek to expand while ignoring chronic welfare issues. And a global campaign to end the brutal annual cull of Australia’s kangaroos gains steam.
Learn about the current unprecedented political attacks on bedrock animal protection and conservation laws and what animal activists can do to help. AWI and allies achieve a major legal victory to help reduce marine mammal deaths in commercial fishing gear. AWI pushes for more humane, effective ways to address bird flu in industrial egg and poultry operations. A look at the profound effects a surging demand for monkeys has had on the animal research landscape. AWI children’s books boost humane education efforts in Puerto Rico.
In the early 2000s, every time animal advocates turned around, it seemed there was a new proposal for a dolphinarium in the Caribbean. We fought every one—some were halted; others went forward. Then everything went quiet for a few years.
AWI continues to work with NGOs and individuals in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to bring an end to its cruel and wasteful humpback whale hunt. We are particularly supportive of local efforts to encourage the few remaining whalers to transition to a much more sustainable whale watching industry.
Two states and several local governments joined a growing list of jurisdictions acting on behalf of wild and exotic animals exploited by circuses and other traveling exhibitions this past year.
A coalition of more than 20 wildlife conservation organizations, representing more than a million Californians, are calling on the California Department of Wildlife and California Fish and Game Commission to stop a planned coyote-hunting contest scheduled for early February in Modoc County.
At last November’s Partnership Meeting on Wildlife Trafficking hosted at the U.S. State Department, outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton noted that over the past few years, wildlife trafficking has become more organized, lucrative, widespread, and dangerous than ever before, rivaled in size only by trade in illegal arms and drugs.
Contributions to the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) are used to further our mission to alleviate the suffering inflicted on animals by people. Contributions to AWI are deductible for federal income tax purposes in accordance with
As in Washington, DC, the new year ushered in new sessions in state legislatures, and bills to improve animal welfare have been introduced in several of them—including the Michigan circus animal bill mentioned at left.
Since the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) stripped Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections from gray wolves across most of the country last year, the embattled animals have come under unprecedented attack in several states.
Several states have added new protections for domestic violence survivors and their pets, bringing to 37 the number of states that allow for the inclusion of pets in domestic violence protection orders or include animal cruelty in the definition of domestic violence.
We at AWI, like so many people around the world, are deeply concerned about the impacts of the wildfires raging in Australia. The loss of life, both animal and human, is devastating.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and Farm Forward implore the USDA to implement the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule without delay.
Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Natural Resources Defense Council make the following statement regarding President Obama and President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico’s commitments on the imperiled vaquita, announced today http://bit.ly/2a6uP2R
Today, Georgia Aquarium filed a complaint in a federal district court in Georgia appealing the decision made by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to deny a permit application to import 18 wild-caught beluga whales from Russia for the purpose of public display. As conservation and animal welfare organizations committed to the protection of beluga whales throughout their range, we strongly support NMFS’ recent decision to deny Georgia Aquarium’s request for a permit to import the belugas. We are disappointed that Georgia Aquarium has chosen to fight this decision.
Participants in the first animal cruelty prosecution training conference hosted by AWI and the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys in 2009 came looking for guidance—and like-minded souls. They included individuals who had volunteered to take on their offices’ animal cruelty cases—generally not very sought-after assignments at the time. In fact, one senior district attorney was dismissively referred to as “the puppy prosecutor” by some judges.
Infamous for her “take no prisoners” stance on wildlife from wolves to polar bears, whales and more, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin objected in 2008 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service finally gave the Cook Inlet beluga whale—which numbered around 375, down from 1,300 in the early '90s—endangered status under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
