It only took 20 years, two lawsuits, and prodding from Congress for the US Department of Agriculture to finally propose regulations to extend Animal Welfare Act (AWA) protections to birds not bred for use in research.
Date created: April 19, 2022
Last updated: April 25, 2022
Over two years have passed since the first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (or “bird flu”) was confirmed in the United States during the most recent outbreak, and the virus continues to wreak havoc on animal populations, domestic and wil
Date created: June 24, 2024
Last updated: June 28, 2024
s of February, the 2022-23 outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) had affected 770 poultry flocks and led to the “depopulation” (mass killing and disposal) of 59 million farmed birds in the United States alone.
Date created: April 4, 2023
Last updated: April 7, 2023
After 20-plus years and multiple lawsuits, the protections afforded by the Animal Welfare Act will apply to birds in the pet trade and in exhibitions. The final rule is long and complicated, but our initial review reveals both good and bad news.
Date created: April 3, 2023
Last updated: April 17, 2024
After a decrease in avian flu outbreaks in July, the virus surged back in August and into the fall. As we reported in the previous issue, flocks exposed to the virus are “depopulated”—killed en masse and the carcasses disposed of.
Date created: December 16, 2022
Last updated: December 20, 2022
The welfare of birds at slaughter is not solely a matter of what happens once they pass through the doors of the slaughter establishment. Abuse and unnecessary suffering can occur before the birds even enter the plant.
Date created: September 19, 2016
Last updated: January 15, 2020
The cover of Birds of a Feather: A True Story of Hope and the Healing Power of Animals, features a photo of a veteran embracing a parrot, who rests her head on his shoulder. The image suggests to a prospective reader that this book will be inspirational. The book delivers on this expectation and more.
Date created: September 26, 2018
Last updated: April 24, 2024
For over 50 years, birds have been denied protection under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). Twenty years ago, the animal welfare community won a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture challenging this exclusion.
Date created: December 17, 2020
Last updated: December 17, 2020
It's hard to imagine what the passengers of US Airways flight 1549 experienced in January 2009.
Date created: February 25, 2010
Last updated: January 9, 2020
… Species of Wild Fauna and Flora , millions of wild birds are still smuggled illegally and traded on the black market … they are the fourth most popular animal kept as pets—after dogs, cats and fish. The impact of the global trade on wild … millions of wild birds from capture and trade. However, many other countries still allow the trapping, export and/or …
Date created: September 26, 2011
Last updated: April 2, 2021
The debate over wild horses on public lands has been raging for decades. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), charged with their management, has rounded up tens of thousands of wild horses since 1971.
Date created: November 6, 2009
Last updated: January 17, 2020
A diverse coalition of tribal, conservation, hunting, animal welfare and wildlife groups, an outfitting business, and concerned citizens from Montana and South Dakota, have filed an emergency rule making petition with the US Department of the Interior seeking to stop the National Park Service from slaughtering wild bison inhabiting Yellowstone National Park and adjoining lands on the Gallatin National Forest in Montana.
Date created: January 22, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Buffalo Field Campaign (BFC), and Mr. Walt Farmer, a Jackson, WY area resident have asked the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) to immediately suspend the bison hunt on the National Elk Refuge (NER) which began on September 15th.
Date created: January 23, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
Blackfish is a documentary film that tells the story of Tilikum—the now infamous orca, or killer whale, who dragged, shook and eventually drowned SeaWorld of Orlando trainer Dawn Brancheau in February 2010. Director Gabriela Cowperthwaite uses interviews with former SeaWorld trainers and employees, scientists, news reports, court testimony, victims’ friends and family, as well as eyewitness accounts of other human-whale incidents to paint a sad and dark picture of the marine park industry.
Date created: August 23, 2013
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Washington, DC—The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Burns District Office in Oregon announced Wednesday night that it will begin controversial experiments to remove the ovaries of wild mares next month.
Date created: September 14, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
At the end of October, the Bureau of Land Management’s National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board met in Washington, DC, to consider a wide range of issues pertaining to wild horse management. AWI was present to deliver remarks to the board on the need to humanely manage horses on the range through proven immunocontraceptive vaccines, rather than pursue risky and unsafe methods to curb population growth.
Date created: January 2, 2020
Last updated: April 17, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is gratified to learn that the Bureau of Land Management has rescinded a controversial sales policy for wild horses and burros in the United States that could have resulted in more animals being sold for slaughter in Canada and Mexico.
Date created: March 15, 2019
Last updated: February 7, 2022
Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it will drop proposed sterilization experiments on wild horses in Oregon, just days after a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop the federal agency from its cruel and controversial plans to surgically remove the ovaries of mares.
Date created: November 7, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
The Bureau of Land Management recently indicated that it will withdraw a proposal to conduct sterilization surgeries on wild horses in Utah’s Confusion Herd Management Area.
Date created: June 9, 2021
Last updated: April 17, 2024
Wild horse advocacy groups are hailing an announcement Friday by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to officially abandon any plans to use mares rounded up from Oregon’s Warm Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) for cruel surgical sterilization experiments.
Date created: February 19, 2019
Last updated: May 2, 2022
Last week, Eubanks & Associates, on behalf of petitioners the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), American Wild Horse Conservation (AWHC), Western Watersheds Project (WWP), and others, notified the US District Court of Wyoming that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is rapidly moving forward with its plan to remove over 4,000 wild horses from the range, despite previously arguing to the court that the groups’ lawsuit was not timely because the agency had not reached a final decision on the removals.
Date created: June 25, 2024
Last updated: June 25, 2024
On May 15, the New York Times published an investigation into the Bureau of Land Management’s Adoption Incentive Program (AIP), which pays individuals to adopt wild horses ($1,000 per animal).
Date created: August 19, 2021
Last updated: April 17, 2024
AWI worked with Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV) and Steve Cohen (D-TN)—two stalwart champions for equine welfare—to denounce the Bureau of Land Management’s reckless plan to round up approximately 20,000 wild horses during fiscal year 2024.
Date created: April 8, 2024
Last updated: April 22, 2024
In June, AWI filed a protest against the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to eliminate over 2 million acres of designated habitat for wild horses in the Wyoming Checkerboard region.
Date created: September 1, 2022
Last updated: April 17, 2024
Despite multiple lawsuits, federal injunctions and overwhelming public opposition, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last night that it is again moving ahead with barbaric experiments on captive wild mares. It will be the third time that the agency has attempted to implement the controversial and cruel procedure that is being pushed by a livestock industry lobbying group financed by Lucas Oil.
Date created: May 14, 2019
Last updated: February 7, 2022
