AWI is urging the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) to revise its guidelines to no longer permit killing animals by inducing heat stroke, a method known as ventilation shutdown plus (VSD+).
Following a year-long application process, AWI’s Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) program was audited for compliance with the International Organization for Standardization’s “ISO 65” standards earlier this year by the International Organic Accreditation Service—the leading independent sustainable food and farming accreditation service.
Responding swiftly to the New York Times exposé of cruel experiments involving farm animals at the US Department of Agriculture’s Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) in Nebraska, members of Congress introduced bills to provide protection for farm animals being used in agricultural research at federal facilities.
In the last 20 years, law enforcement, policymakers, health care professionals, and the general public have become more aware of the significant link between animal abuse and child abuse. As with domestic violence, animal abuse often occurs in the same households as child abuse. But there is another troubling connection: Animal abuse is one of the first signs of antisocial behavior in a child.
AWI seeks to persuade not just the general public and policymakers, but zoos and aquariums themselves, that cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) do not belong in captivity. Accordingly, AWI’s Dr.
A conspicuous patrol airplane cruising at low altitude over a Kenyan National Park has an impact similar to a conspicuous police car cruising along an American interstate highway: It produces a prompt and significant decline in violations.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered a monumental humanitarian crisis.
This summer, AWI funded sanctuaries in three countries that provide care to great apes rescued from a variety of cruel circumstances and give them a second chance at a life worth living.
Last summer, AWI launched a partnership with the American Bird Conservancy and Kaua‘i Forest Bird Recovery Project to save Hawaiian honeycreepers from extinction due to
The wildfires that raged across Australia in late 2019 and early 2020 were unprecedented in scope and severity. Nearly 3 billion animals, it is estimated, were killed or displaced, including numerous young wombats.
A federal judge ruled on March 31 that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) acted illegally in approving US Navy testing and training activities that threaten widespread harm to marine life in a vast region of the Pacific Ocean. The ruling stems from a December 2013 lawsuit brought by Earthjustice on behalf of AWI, the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Ocean Mammal Institute (see Winter 2014 AWI Quarterly).
The red wolf (Canis rufus) has had a perilous journey on the road to recovery. Once distributed throughout the eastern and southcentral United States, intensive predator control programs and habitat degradation drove them to extinction in the wild by 1980.
Last May, AWI was honored to partner with HarperCollins Children’s Books on educational materials coinciding with the launch of a new series aimed at 3rd to 6th graders from Newbery Medal–winning author Katherine Applegate.
The Christine Stevens Wildlife Award is a grant program named in honor of AWI’s late founder and president for over 50 years. Each year, the program provides grants of up to $10,000 to support innovative and creative research on humane, nonlethal tools and techniques for wildlife conflict management and improved methods of wildlife study.
AWI is dedicated to improving the care, housing and handling of animals in research facilities. From our earliest days, we have encouraged laboratory personnel to provide animals with comfortable housing and the opportunity to engage in species-typical behaviors, while sparing them needless suffering.
AWI is pleased to announce the most recent recipients of the Refinement Research Award, which funds research projects that develop or test novel refinement methods, and the inaugural Implementing Refinement Grant, which funds the purchase of equip