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.
Today’s statement by Virgin that it intends to continue to work with aquariums that confine whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in captivity for public entertainment has disappointed wildlife experts from leading animal welfare and conservation charities. Days after Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) launched a campaign on February 25, 2014, calling on Virgin Holidays to stop the sale of trips to places like SeaWorld, Sir Richard Branson announced that he was going to ask his supply chain (including marine parks) to take a pledge to no longer source cetaceans from the wild to stock captive facilities.
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.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) commends Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring for creating the nation's first Attorney General's "Animal Law" unit, which will serve as a resource for local law enforcement and state agencies on issues involving animal welfare and animal fighting or abuse. Michelle Welch, an assistant attorney general and a 2011 winner of AWI’s Albert Schweitzer Medal, has been selected as the leader of the team.
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.
Stepping in where the US Department of Agriculture failed to act, Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring’s Animal Law Unit moved to enforce state cruelty laws and end the abuse of animals by an exhibitor in Winchester, Virginia, that is licensed under the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
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.”
In March and April, AWI marine animal program director Susan Millward and consultant Courtney Vail participated in the ninth meeting of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee to the United Nations Environment Programme’s Protocol Concerning Specially Protected Areas and Wildlife in the Wider Caribbean (SPAW).
The sequence in which 14 laboratory rhesus macaques left their home enclosure during a routine catching procedure was recorded on 30 occasions during 6 weeks. The animals were trained to voluntarily exit one by one and enter a transport cage for weighing and/or treatment. Mean weekly exit orders cross-correlated significantly, and individuals retained their exit positions with remarkable consistency throughout the study period.
“I slowly became conscious of the animals’ point of view and recognized that much of what I was doing as a scientist did not square with my own moral standards.” The reader hasn’t gotten far in Voracious Science and Vulnerable Animals before encountering this stunning revelation.
Are you registered to vote? It is quick and easy to do so, and voting is a crucial way you can help animals. Fill in the form below for a step-by-step guide to getting registered at your current address.
Scientists have reported that trampling by other walruses in a stampede likely caused the deaths of 131 walruses found on a beach in Alaska’s North Slope in August.
Long-finned pilot whales have been hunted for human consumption in the Faroe Islands (a small Danish territory located between Scotland and Iceland in the North Atlantic) since the first human settlement of the islands.
This story and others related to the impacts of military sonar on marine mammals are recounted in engaging detail by Joshua Horwitz in his upcoming book, War of the Whales, to be published by Simon and Schuster in July 2014. Josh focuses on two “characters” in the book: Ken Balcomb, a killer whale biologist in Washington state, and Joel. Ken has also studied beaked whales in the Bahamas and, through an astonishing set of coincidences, ended up embroiled in the struggle to protect whales from the growing cacophony of sonar, pile driving, shipping, and seismic exploration for oil and gas that is cluttering up their acoustic space below the waves.
The Watamu Marine Association (WMA) was established in 2007 in Kenya in order to bring together members from the community, tourism, and environmental sectors in the coastal resort town of Watamu to promote community development and empowerment, and to advocate for the protection and preservation of Watamu Marine National Park and Reserve.
It is not uncommon that malfunctioning in watering valves or leaks of water bottles result in the accumulation of water in rodent cages (especially during holidays and on weekends), a circumstance that can have serious implications for the animals trapped in such quasi-flooded living quarters. In your own experience, what's a practicable and reliable solution to this problem?
Wildlife has lost yet another champion. Wayne Lotter, 51, a vigorous leader in efforts to suppress wildlife crime, was murdered in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 16.
With We Are All Whalers: The Plight of Whales and Our Responsibility, Dr. Michael Moore proves definitively that he is no ivory tower scientist. He speaks with passion about his decades-long research on whales and his fascination with these intriguing animals. At the outset of the book, Moore issues readers a challenge, admitting that he is hoping to convince us that the welfare and very survival of the fewer than 340 remaining North Atlantic right whales are in our hands.
