In 1999, the Makah Tribe of northwest Washington killed a gray whale, the first killed by the tribe since the late 1920s.
Date created: July 1, 2019
Last updated: July 1, 2019
Federal lawmakers have introduced legislation to prevent the establishment of horse slaughter operations within the US, end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad, and protect the public from consuming toxic horse meat. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 113, was introduced by Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Ed Royce (R-CA), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM).
Date created: January 13, 2017
Last updated: January 31, 2024
On Friday, the US House of Representatives passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement (SHARE) Act of 2015 (H.R. 2406)—a sweeping pro-trophy hunting and trapping bill—by a largely partisan vote of 242 to 161. The Obama administration released a statement strongly opposing H.R. 2406 earlier that same week.
Date created: February 29, 2016
Last updated: February 2, 2022
On the opening day of the 111th Congress, Representative Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), chairwoman of the House Natural Resources Committee's Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, reintroduced the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81).
Date created: January 23, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
Yesterday, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced legislation to end the use of brutal traps on furbearing animals within federal wildlife refuges. H.R. 3710, the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, which was submitted with a total of 35 original co-sponsors, helps to restore the original intent of the National Wildlife Refuge System by placing a ban on the use of cruel body-gripping traps within the refuge system.
Date created: October 2, 2009
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Today, Congresswoman Nita Lowey (D-NY) introduced legislation to end the use of brutal traps on furbearing animals within federal wildlife refuges. The Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, H.R. 2657, is intended to help to restore the original intent of the National Wildlife Refuge System by placing a ban on the use of cruel body-gripping traps on these public lands.
Date created: July 26, 2011
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Once again, Congress has voiced its opposition to horse slaughter. The US House of Representatives today approved an amendment to the 2008 Agriculture Appropriations bill that will temporarily bring horse slaughter to a halt by stripping funds from the federally required inspection of slaughter-bound horses. Without the inspections, the slaughter cannot proceed.
Date created: March 31, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
The US House Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing today on “Improving Safety and Transparency in America’s Food and Drugs.”
Date created: January 29, 2020
Last updated: January 18, 2024
Yesterday, President Obama announced that the United States will not impose targeted trade sanctions to address Iceland’s commercial whaling, although the President has revised and repackaged a series of diplomatic measures that US officials will be obligated to implement.
Date created: April 2, 2014
Last updated: February 2, 2022
US Trade Representative Katherine Tai formally requested environmental consultations with Mexico today over its illegal fishing.
Date created: February 10, 2022
Last updated: January 18, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), has filed suit against the US Navy over its plans to build a $100 million Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR) 50 miles east of the Jacksonville, Florida coast. The plans involve the construction of a 500 square nautical mile range and the operation of over 400 Navy war game exercises every year.
Date created: February 1, 2010
Last updated: February 2, 2022
When the U.s. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the country’s first national standards for organic production and established the National Organic Program (NOP) in 2000, provisions dealing with the treatment of the animals being raised were all but absent. From the beginning, the organic regulations required that animals be given freedom of movement and access to the outdoors, fresh air and direct sunlight.
Date created: August 2, 2012
Last updated: January 16, 2020
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has announced a proposed rule to ban the import and export of threatened Banggai cardinalfish, following a 2021 petition from conservation groups.
Date created: August 15, 2023
Last updated: August 15, 2023
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), Cetacean Society International, and Earth Island Institute filed a petition with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to designate the Sakhalin Bay-Amur River stock of beluga whales in the Sea of Okhotsk as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Subject to intense levels of historical hunting, these belugas have yet to recover and face serious ongoing threats, most notably from annual live captures for public display.
Date created: April 23, 2014
Last updated: February 2, 2022
The Philadelphia Police Department's Mounted Patrol Unit was joined at its headquarters by US Rep. Patrick Meehan, R-Pa., the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), the ASPCA (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) and The Humane Society of the United States to garner public support for federal legislation to stop the inhumane killing of American horses for human consumption.
Date created: May 10, 2013
Last updated: February 2, 2022
US Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) are urging the US Department of Agriculture to fulfill its obligation to protect the public from misleading food labels, citing a recent Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) report indicating that 85% of analyzed animal welfare claims on meat and poultry products lacked adequate substantiation.
Date created: March 30, 2023
Last updated: January 17, 2024
Narrowly averting a government shutdown, Congress adopted a $460 billion spending package in March that included multiple wins for animals.
Date created: June 24, 2024
Last updated: June 28, 2024
The Consolidated Appropriations Act (H.R. 4366) signed into law Saturday includes several important victories for animals, but falls short in a number of key areas, such as enforcement of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Horse Protection Act (HPA).
Date created: March 15, 2024
Last updated: September 5, 2024
At the request of the Soliciter General, the Supreme Court will review a case from the US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia, PA, which overturned a conviction involving so-called “crush videos” and called the law proh
Date created: August 11, 2009
Last updated: April 18, 2024
In a settlement filed in court Friday, the US Department of the Interior (DOI) agreed to determine whether Mexico has failed to stop illegal fishing and trade of totoaba that is driving the vaquita porpoise’s extinction.
Date created: April 10, 2023
Last updated: April 10, 2023
In March of this year, as noted on page 2, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) on the Makah Tribe’s proposed hunt of gray whales—the first step toward issuing a waiver under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to allow the hunt under US law. In its comments to NMFS, AWI asserts that the DEIS is inadequate, and that the MMPA waiver should not be granted.
Date created: June 1, 2015
Last updated: January 9, 2020
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has unfortunately approved a request by the United States for an aboriginal subsistence whaling (ASW) quota for the Makah Tribe of Northwest Washington State.
Date created: July 4, 2012
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Thirty members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to the US Department of Agriculture in February with pointed questions about the department’s effort to counter the widespread use of ventilation shutdown plus heat (VSD+) to kill tens of million
Date created: April 8, 2024
Last updated: April 22, 2024
In July, the US Department of Agriculture proposed a rule that, if finalized, would bring us closer to ending the egregiously inhumane practice of soring Tennessee Walking horses, racking horses, and other gaited breeds.
Date created: September 16, 2016
Last updated: April 24, 2024
The US Department of Agriculture recently requested comments on a proposed rulemaking under the Packers and Stockyards Act, which governs how meat and poultry companies buy and source animals for slaughter.
Date created: September 1, 2022
Last updated: September 8, 2022
