In the summer of 2013, a young filmmaker from California named Jonny Zwick set out on a three-month journey around Iceland, intent on understanding the contradiction that makes the country both a burgeoning whalewatch center and one of the only countries in the world to kill whales—including endangered fin whales—for commercial purposes.
Inter-male aggression in mice continues to challenge laboratory animal husbandry personnel, as intervention strategies are typically applied at the cage level without a good understanding of how individual behavior is affected. Aggression mitigation may be improved if individual interactions were better understood.
AWI recently provided substantial financial support to help the nonprofit Animals Asia construct a second bear sanctuary in Vietnam, primarily to house Asiatic black bears rescued from bear-bile farming.
Delegate Eni Faleomavaega (D-American Samoa) and co-sponsors Reps. Bill Delahunt (D-Mass.), Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) recently introduced the International Whale Conservation and Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 2455) in the House of Representatives.
AWI is partnering with Consciously, a public benefit company, and the ASPCA’s Shop With Your Heart program on a new internet browser extension (add-on) that will help consumers select higher-welfare and plant-based alternatives while they shop.
The unnecessary removal of wild horses has reached an alarming rate under the current administration. Thousands of horses have been and continue to be removed from their native range, and placed in short- and long-term holding facilities in the Midwest.
It was a chaotic first few months for the 119th Congress, as lawmakers attempted to pass spending bills to avert a government shutdown while the Trump administration began moving to cut staff and funds for agencies that administer criti
I don’t know what shocked me more when I was offered the chance to become a kangaroo advocate in Europe. Was it that I, a native of the Netherlands, had never heard of the kangaroo industry despite considering myself to be relatively aware of animal welfare issues, or that almost none of the corporate leaders, politicians, or friends I reached out to in Europe were aware of it, either? This was alarming, considering that the commercial killing of kangaroos is the world’s largest slaughter of land-based wildlife, with Europe being the main importer of kangaroo products, responsible for 65 percent of the trade. Fortunately, awareness is on the rise in Europe and elsewhere—the global campaign to save kangaroos is building and looking increasingly (I apologize) “hopful.”
As the 60th meeting of the International Whaling Commission continues its deliberations, the Bush administration is undermining decades of whale conservation progress as it seeks to cut a deal with whaling nations that could lead to the official resumption of commercial whaling.
The Bush Administration today hit a new low by supporting a proposal in favor of killing humpback whales, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) reports. By giving its support, the United States broke ranks with the conservation-minded member nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) who voted against the proposal.
The illicit bushmeat trade—the sale of wild animal meat—continues to thrive and even escalate despite efforts by scientists, conservationists and health officials to stem
the tide.
The 2018 Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) was recently released, revealing measured improvements to corporate commitments on animal welfare.
Elephants in West Africa continue to struggle for survival during the worst drought in 26 years, reports African elephant conservation group Save the Elephants.
In a much-anticipated move, the US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released its updated Guideline on Substantiating Animal-Raising or Environment-Related Labeling Claims in late August.
Around the globe each year, more than 650,000 marine mammals are killed or seriously injured as bycatch—entangled or hooked in fishing gear meant for other species.
In recognition of the immense suffering experienced by egg-laying hens confined to battery cages, 10 states in the last 15 years have enacted laws prohibiting the use of these ultra-confining enclosures.
In my laboratory, two macaque monkeys are housed together in an indoor cage measuring 2 m wide by 2.6 m high x 2 m deep. A movable partition down the center of the cage makes it possible to separate the monkeys when experimentation requires it. They are separated for feeding and when one of the monkeys is to be transferred to a training room elsewhere in the building.
Eight single-caged adult rhesus macaques were given the choice of freely collecting their standard food ration, i.e. 33 biscuits, from an ordinary food box or working for its retrieval from a custom- made food puzzle. During a one-hour observation session following the simultaneous distribution of biscuits in both feeders, individuals spent on average a total of 32 sec retrieving 29.0 biscuits from the food box, and 673 sec retrieving 11.3 biscuits from the food puzzle. It was inferred that the animals voluntarily worked for ordinary food, with the expression of foraging activities serving as its own reward.
Unlike in the wild, primates in captivity are usually deprived of opportunities to forage because food is made readily available, requiring little effort for its procurement. Being forced to live permanently in an understimulating environment impairs the behavioral health of primates, thereby jeopardizing the validity of scientific research data collected on them.
The City of Calabasas, in the Santa Monica Mountains northwest of Los Angeles, has decided it will no longer use city funds to finance the killing of coyotes.
