A training technique is described for ensuring the active cooperation of adult male rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) during in-homecage venipuncture. Five single-housed and 10 pair-housed males (average age 8 years) were the subjects of the study. On average, 13 training sessions (range 2-26) were necessary to get a male to voluntarily present a leg in a specially designed opening of the door and to display no resistance during venipuncture.
It is now well accepted that acclimation to handling (or gentling) in non-humans primates can have a significant impact on the quality of data measured by reducing variance and increasing the significance level of observed changes. However, relatively few well controlled studies on this topic have been published. The use of "pre-invasive" implantable radio telemetry has revolutionized the collection of physiological data under stress-free conditions.
Many animal care facilities, such as zoos and laboratories, are beginning to view operant conditioning as a valuable management tool (Laule, 1993). Animals can be trained using positive reinforcement, a method which allows the animals to receive rewards for performing desired behaviors.
There is ample published evidence (46 reports) that nonhuman primates do not need to be forcefully restrained during common handling procedures. Twenty-six reports provide detailed information of how primates can be trained to voluntarily cooperate - rather than resist - during blood collection, injection, topical drug application, blood pressure measurement, urine collection, and capture. Such training techniques minimize distress reactions, thereby safeguarding the subjects' welfare and increasing the validity of research data collected.
For macaques and other primates in research laboratories, blood draws can be extremely stressful events. The anxiety and fear, however, may result not so much from any "phobia" involving the needle, but from the restraint often employed to enable the technician to perform the procedure.
The Primate Foundation of Arizona is home to 80 chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Our chimpanzee Wellness Program (detailed in Fritz and Howell 1993) was initiated in 1970 and became a formal written Program in 1991.
Caged rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) were trained to voluntarily enter a transport cage in an attempt to avoid undue distress reactions jeopardizing the validity of research data collected from such subjects.
Trapping is a method of capturing wildlife by humans using devices specifically designed to restrain an animal in place without the need for continual human presence. Traps can be set and left, making them resource efficient from the standpoint of the trapper.
In a major victory, New Mexico has enacted the Wildlife Conservation and Public Safety Act—also known as “Roxy’s Law”—which bans the use of traps, snares, and poisons on New Mexico’s public lands.
Greenwash: The dissemination of misleading information by an organization to conceal its abuse of the environment in order to present a positive public image.
"The most horrible sound you’ll ever hear." That’s how Kristi Gatt described the howl of pain and terror her dog made when a steel-jaw leghold trap clamped down on her paw in North Carolina’s Croatan National Forest.
Researchers in Portugal (Nuno Santos et al., 2017) studied the live-capture of wolves for ecological research to assess the animals’ stress response and the potential benefits of reducing the length of time they are held in traps.
Circuses, animal acts, carnivals, petting zoos, and other animal exhibitors are now required to file itineraries with USDA at least 48 hours in advance if they will be keeping any of their animals off-site for one or more nights. Such itineraries must include precise details concerning the locations of and persons responsible for each animal.
Alick Simmons, former deputy chief veterinary officer for the United Kingdom, acknowledges that he has “actively facilitated exploitative interactions with animals.” But so have the rest of us, he writes in his intriguing book, Treated Like Animals: Improving the Lives of the Creatures We Own, Eat and Use. Simmons does not limit “exploitative interactions” to only mean eating meat or wearing leather. By applying a broad definition of “exploit” (“to make full use of and derive benefit from”), he contends that we are also complicit in animal exploitation by managing wildlife, destroying “pests,” and even keeping cats and dogs as pets (e.g., through selective breeding and castration).
The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is proposing, for the first time, to treat Salmonella as an adulterant for purposes of the Poultry Products Inspection Act.
The picture for marine mammals isn’t entirely rosy, however. After 45 years as the nation’s premier law protecting marine mammals, the MMPA faces several attacks in Congress.
Today a groundbreaking trial began in Federal District Court in Greenbelt, MD (6500 Cherrywood Lane, Greenbelt, MD 20770) pitting a massive wind energy development in West Virginia against the critically endangered Indiana bat.
For mice in laboratories, ulcerative dermatitis is a common condition affecting their health and welfare. It is also often a death sentence, as the most common treatments are rarely effective.
Since 2021, AWI and colleagues have called on the governments of Norway and the United States to withdraw permits and funding for a controversial research study that involves the capture of minke whales in Norwegian waters to test their hearing.
Today, in its latest attack on the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the Trump administration announced a proposed new rule that would harm threatened and endangered species by making it harder to protect the habitat that is critical for their survival.
Tomorrow, the Trump administration is slated to finalize a rule that further erodes the Endangered Species Act (ESA), one of the nation’s most effective and most popular laws. Under the new rule, the administration has narrowed the scope of what can be considered habitat, redefining what habitat is and limiting the ability of federal agencies to establish critical habitat for listed species.
The Trump administration announced today it will reauthorize the use of sodium cyanide in wildlife-killing devices called M-44s, rejecting overwhelming public support for a nationwide ban.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration reauthorized use of sodium cyanide in wildlife-killing devices called M-44s. These “cyanide bombs” received approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency despite inhumanely and indiscriminately killing thousands of animals each year while also injuring people.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) condemns today’s decision by the National Park Service (NPS) to reverse a 2015 rule prohibiting unethical and unsporting methods for killing wildlife on the 10 national preserves managed by the NPS in Alaska.
