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Fewer than 10 vaquita porpoises remain in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California.

Thirty-one states either mandate or encourage veterinarians to report animal abuse, and most of these provide vets with immunity from civil (and sometimes criminal) liability for good-faith reporting. Moreover, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) has a very firm policy calling for such reporting, regardless of state law.

In the last Quarterly, we discussed the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to conduct mass surgical sterilization experiments on wild horses from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon.

June 23 was a momentous day for coyotes and foxes in Florida, as the state's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted unanimously to enact a ban on coyote and fox "penning."

In 2018, Proposition 12 passed in California with 63 percent of the vote.

The day after California’s law banning the production and sale of foie gras took effect on July 1, 2012, producers and restaurateurs sued to overturn it. They sought—but were denied—an injunction against the law as the case was being adjudicated.

This summer, the Vietnamese government agreed to a memorandum of understanding with the nonprofit Animals Asia to finally end bear bile farming in the country.

Virgin Holidays has pledged $300,000 to support the creation of North America’s first dolphin sanctuary and the move of seven captive dolphins at the National Aquarium in Baltimore to the facility.

In 2014, AWI was invited by Virgin Holidays—one of the world’s biggest tourism companies—to take part in a stakeholder process through which Virgin intended to fine tune its policy on swim-with-dolphin attractions.

As we go to press, a bill to address the exploitation of tiger cubs and other captive wild animals awaits Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s signature.

An outpouring of opposition helped defeat a bill in the Virginia General Assembly that would have impeded the confiscation of animals found suffering in inhumane conditions at poorly run zoos.

Virginia passed a law in April banning new coyote/fox penning operations in the state. The law makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor (punishable by up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500) for any person “to erect, maintain, or operate an enclosure for the purpose of pursuing, hunting, or killing or attempting to pursue, hunt, or kill any fox or coyote with a dog.”

AWI, together with the Humane Education Network, congratulates the winners of the 2021 “A Voice for Animals” competition.