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.
Shelter animals in California just got a huge helping hand from lawmakers in Sacramento. The Golden State has become the first in the nation to ban the sale of commercially bred pets in pet stores.
On October 8, the California Coastal Commission voted to allow SeaWorld San Diego to build its $100 million expansion of Shamu Stadium, a project known as Blue World, but only under the following conditions: the orca breeding program must end; consistent with federal law, no whales can be transferred into or out of the park; and the number of whales held in the new complex must be capped at 15.
In response to legal pressure from AWI and its allies, Mendocino County, California, officials have agreed to suspend the planned renewal of the county’s contract with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program, pending an environmental review that will include consideration of nonlethal predator control methods.
After an undercover investigation in 2008 showed heinous acts of animal cruelty toward nonambulatory or “downed” animals at the Hallmark/Westland Meat Packing Co., California strengthened an existing law governing the treatment of downed animals.
A US District Court judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Missouri’s Attorney General Chris Koster and joined by attorneys general from five other states that challenged a California law addressing the housing of egg-laying hens.
California moved one step closer to deciding whether to protect the gray wolf under the California Endangered Species Act, by accepting a petition that had been filed earlier this year. At its October 3rd public meeting, the California Fish & Game Commission (Commission) voted unanimously to accept a petition that had been filed to list the wolf, thus giving the gray wolf immediate status as a "candidate" for listing, and providing the species full state protections until a final decision is made.
