Even as some state legislatures seek to cover up abuse via ag-gag bills, a few are in pursuit of higher ground: last year, Rhode Island joined a growing list of states that prohibit intensive confinement crates for calves raised for veal and gestating sows. Rhode Island also became the fourth state to ban routine tail docking of cattle.
Date created: May 21, 2013
Last updated: April 24, 2024
As reported in the Winter 2014 AWI Quarterly, a dispute resolution panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached a landmark decision this past November in a case brought by Canada and Norway against the European Union (EU) because of the EU’s ban on imports of commercial seal products.
Date created: August 22, 2014
Last updated: January 8, 2020
"Barbaric, Barbaric, Barbaric!" This is the phrase recently opined by Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, our nation's longest-serving US Senator and last great political orator. Following news of charges leveled against Atlanta Falcons star quarterback Michael Vick, Senator Byrd described the tragic and gruesome practice of dog fighting in a heartfelt speech on the Senate floor.
Date created: January 23, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
Gray wolf expansion into previously occupied habitat is among the most ecologically successful but socially controversial wildlife restoration efforts undertaken in the western United States. Conflicts between wolves and humans arising from livestock depredation have resulted in the killing of thousands of wolves and continue to undermine species recovery. More than 100 studies indicate that nonlethal methods of deterring carnivores from livestock are as effective as or superior to lethal control.
Date created: December 17, 2020
Last updated: September 1, 2022
Barn fires cause immense suffering, killing hundreds of thousands of farm animals every year. Some farm animals die almost immediately as fires burn through the barns, while others have to be euthanized later due to severe burns and smoke inhalation. The Animal Welfare Institute released a report in October 2018, compiling information on the prevalence and causes of farm animal deaths due to barn fires during the preceding five-year period (2013–2017). During those years, over 2.7 million farm animals perished in barn fires. Ninety-five percent of those deaths were chickens. In just one October 2017 incident, a staggering 1 million chickens were killed in a single fire in Indiana.
Date created: November 8, 2018
Last updated: May 24, 2024
This past year, over 1.6 million farm animals were reported killed in barn fires across the United States, making 2020 the deadliest year since AWI began tracking these incidents through media reports.
Date created: March 24, 2021
Last updated: May 5, 2021
More than 150,000 farm animals perished in potentially preventable barn fires in the United States in 2018, an Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) analysis of media reports to date has found.
Date created: December 28, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) released a first-of-its-kind report highlighting the more than 2.7 million US farm animals who perished in potentially preventable barn fires from 2013 to 2017. The report, issued in advance of National Fire Prevention Week (Oct. 7-13), offers recommendations for barn fire prevention and improved fire safety to better protect farm animals.
Date created: October 3, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
Bats live on every continent except Antarctica and serve extremely important ecological roles as pollinators, seed dispersers and consumers of vast quantities of insects. Although some societies value these useful animals, many persecute bats based on irrational prejudice and fears of rabies.
Date created: September 26, 2011
Last updated: October 29, 2021
At least 47 Canada lynx have been illegally trapped in Maine over the past decade and despite a designation as threatened on the federal endangered species list, a court has declined to accord lynx adequate protection from illegal trapping under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Date created: February 25, 2010
Last updated: April 24, 2024
In the Summer 2012 AWI Quarterly, we reported that more than 10,000 animals each year are shot, stabbed, mutilated, and killed in military training exercises.
Date created: February 19, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
A butterfly’s life is fragile at the best of times. But these are hardly the best of times. Indeed, all the indicators and experts agree: The butterflies are now enduring very serious challenges. Extinction is overtaking them in the distant forests of Sri Lanka and Papua New Guinea, as well as in the British countryside, the Mexican hill country, the Northern Great Plains, southern Florida, and our own backyards.
Date created: March 23, 2017
Last updated: January 15, 2020
“Beagle production facility.”
Date created: September 1, 2022
Last updated: September 8, 2022
“Operation Something Bruin,” a four-year, multi-agency sting operation involving state officials from Georgia and North Carolina, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, and National Park Service, has resulted in the arrest of 80 people charged with some 980 wildlife violations in connection with bear poaching in the region.
Date created: May 21, 2013
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Keggie Carew’s background is not in science (her career started in contemporary art), and it shows. Her book, Beastly: The 40,000-Year Story of Animals and Us, is not the first book to consider the combined history of humans and nonhuman animals, but it takes a unique approach to the tale.
Date created: December 15, 2023
Last updated: December 22, 2023
There I stood upon a steep hillside in the lush and wild heart of Idaho, using all fours to steady myself, though not nearly as deftly as my canine co-worker, Wicket.
Date created: June 8, 2009
Last updated: January 16, 2020
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) applauds U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) for introducing legislation yesterday that would invest in effective, nonlethal solutions to reduce property damage caused by beavers.
Date created: December 14, 2022
Last updated: January 18, 2024
by Michael Callahan, president of the Beaver Institute
Date created: December 21, 2018
Last updated: March 20, 2023
Part narrative, part reference source, Leila Philip’s Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America provides incredible information about beavers—from their physiology and behaviors to their entwined history with humankind in the United States and the threats they now face.
Date created: April 4, 2023
Last updated: April 17, 2024
The importance of providing woodchips for hygienic purposes has been established by Chamove et al (1982), and the provisioning of bedding materials is encouraged for environmental enrichment by Bayne (1989). At the Primate Foundation of Arizona (PFA), we provide bedding materials along with woodchips for these reasons and to encourage natural wild chimpanzee activities, such as foraging, nesting, and tool use.
Date created: May 16, 2016
Last updated: November 11, 2020
On the first day of summer 2013, agriculture officials confirmed that 50,000 bees—likely representing more than 300 colonies—discovered dead in a shopping mall parking lot in Wilsonville, Oregon, were done in by a neonicotinoid pesticide sprayed on nearby trees.
Date created: December 10, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
Every five years or so, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association releases a National Beef Quality Audit, conducted through the beef checkoff program (checkoff programs collect money from producers to fund promotional campaigns and research).
Date created: September 26, 2018
Last updated: September 26, 2018
Curiosity—the drive to gather information—is considered a fundamental motivation throughout the animal kingdom. As such, providing opportunities to satisfy that curiosity may be essential for animals to have good welfare in captivity. Fish are held in captivity at some of the highest numbers of any taxa, but their curiosity is rarely studied or accommodated. It is estimated that upwards of 1 million individuals of the Cyprinidae family, which includes carp and true minnows, are used annually in research on human development and physiology. Yet, housing plans for laboratory fishes have been modeled from the aquaculture industry, prioritizing production and functionality over welfare, resulting in barren tanks and minimal cognitive stimulation for the animals residing in them.
Date created: April 19, 2022
Last updated: September 4, 2024
A captive group of white-faced capuchins, Cebus capucinus, was presented with four deep litters in simultaneous choice (or preference) tests. A floor covering of ground corn cob, woodchips, wood wool or peat was presented once in each quarter of the group's indoor floor-area for 14 consecutive days, and the layout of the litters was rotated after each such period. The monkeys were observed on 10 days in each period to determine the occurrence of locomotion, foraging, play, and social contact on each of the litters.
Date created: May 5, 2016
Last updated: October 30, 2020
Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction, by Michelle Nijhuis, is a cross between a Ken Burns–style historical documentary and the 2016 film Hidden Figures, bringing to life the history of key players who helped promote wildlife and wildlands conservation. While Nijhuis highlights the restoration of the American plains bison, bald eagle, and whooping crane, it is the stories about the conservation champions featured in the book that make it a compelling read.
Date created: August 19, 2021
Last updated: August 30, 2021
