This edition of the Quarterly, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, features stories that explain the ESA’s inner workings and illustrate this landmark law’s continuing importance—including an account of how the ESA supported a successful legal challenge by AWI and allies to induce the USFWS to recommit to red wolf recovery. In this issue, we also address the woeful absence of protections for mice in research, highlight our campaign to promote better conditions for egg-laying hens, raise a glass to retiring staff member Dr. Mary Lou Randour, and more.
AWI reports from the 69th meeting of the International Whaling Commission. The outlook for animal welfare and the environment during a second Trump administration. Helping Mountain West communities become “Bear Smart.” USDA fails to clear confusion on animal welfare label claims. Horse advocates gather in DC and talk some horse sense into Congress.
Wolf Nation: The Life, Death, and Return of Wild American Wolves tackles the very difficult issue of human coexistence with wolves and how polarizing it has become—pitting federal against state governments, rural against urban, unfettered “use” against preservation.
Acting interior Secretary David Bernhardt, in a March 6 speech at the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Denver, stated that the US Fish and Wildlife Service plans to eliminate Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections for
The use of woodchips as bedding for 16 juvenile chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) was evaluated for the effects on behaviour, health and husbandry practices. Woodchip bedding was placed in two outdoor play areas for five consecutive days. Behavioural data were recorded in the morning and afternoon of each day, and compared to pre- and post-test data.
The effects of the presence of woodchips as a floor covering were assessed in two pens housing 28 monkeys. No negative effects were found, while aggression decreased and time foraging on the floor increased. The chips were less expensive, they reduced odour, and the animals appeared more well-adjusted than with no floor covering.
Horses are sensitive and perceptive animals who should be treated with consideration. Transporting horses on roads can be dangerous and requires safety precautions.
Whales have been getting entangled in man-made ropes and nets, probably, since the first fishermen began to use these materials to catch fish thousands of years ago. However, before the advent of synthetic materials large whales likely ripped through this gear; any that was carried away with them may have deteriorated before it could become life-threatening.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to testify before Congressional committees as they begin to determine spending levels for Fiscal Year 2013 (beginning October 2012), AWI asked for continued support for the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Animal Cruelty and Animal Fighting Initiative,
AWI and Farm Sanctuary, working with the Animal Law Clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School, have petitioned the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop regulations governing the handling of chickens, turkeys and other birds at slaughter.
At our facility, we have recently started working with a new vendor who is regularly selling us pound dogs as opposed to our old vendor who sold us primarily hounds and purpose-bred dogs. It is a lot more difficult for me to work with pound dogs, such as a golden retriever or a labrador than with the hounds since I know they were indeed companion animals at some point. These animals still exhibit many signs of companion animals, such as knowing how to sit and give paw, wanting to play fetch with a toy, or just seeking human attention and affection.
Since 2020, a critically endangered population of orcas living in the waters of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) has been interacting with vessels, primarily sailboats, ramming and damaging the rudders and sometimes disabling navigation.
With support from AWI and other organizations, a joint International Whaling Commission/Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species virtual workshop was held in April 2021 on the role of cetaceans in ecosystem functioning.
Each year, from roughly September through April, more than a thousand dolphins are removed from the wild during the unspeakably cruel Taiji, Japan, dolphin drive hunts. Most are herded into the shallows and violently slaughtered for meat and blubber, as depicted in the Oscar-winning movie, The Cove. For others, the suffering lasts even longer—as they are sold into a life in captivity within aquariums in Japan, China and elsewhere.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee today approved an “in danger” designation for an area of Mexico that is the last-remaining home of the critically endangered vaquita porpoise and a fish called the totoaba. An international team of scientific experts recently concluded that only about 10 vaquitas remained alive in 2018.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) today gave Mexico one year to improve protections for the only remaining home of the critically endangered vaquita or face an “in danger” designation for the Gulf of California site.
Mayor Cheye Calvo of Berwyn Heights, Md., was changing for a meeting last July after having returned home from walking his dogs, when SWAT team members of the Prince George’s County Police Department burst into his house without knocking and opene
Some 20,000 gray whales roam the eastern Pacific from Alaska to Baja California. Less than 200 also ply the waters from the Sea of Okhotsk to southern Korea.
On April 25, a World Trade Organization arbitrator ruled that Mexico can pursue retaliatory measures against the United States for the $163 million a year Mexico claims to lose because of US import restrictions on tuna not caught in accordance wit
At the end of 2013, the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) first-ever consideration of an animal welfare issue resulted in a landmark, if mixed, decision by a dispute settlement panel. The panel ruled that although the European Union’s ban on imports of seal products violated WTO anti-discrimination rules, it was nonetheless valid because it fulfilled the objective of addressing the European public’s moral concerns about seal welfare.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and an international coalition of animal protection and environmental groups are calling on Yahoo! Japan and its parent company, the LY Corporation, to stop selling products containing whale and dolphin meat after a new investigation found high levels of toxins in some of the nearly 1,000 cetacean food items available for purchase on the massive search engine and web portal.
A federal court has struck down Iowa’s “ag-gag” law. In 2012, the state created the crime of “agricultural production facility fraud” after several undercover investigations revealed worker cruelty to animals.
