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.
In a unanimous opinion, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision striking down California’s ban on foie gras.
California’s foie gras ban is now in effect for the foreseeable future—a win for ducks, geese, and animal welfare advocates.
In its recently passed budget bill, the state of California took a huge step forward in promoting healthy plant-based meals in public schools.
Washington, DC—California Governor Jerry Brown officially signed groundbreaking legislation yesterday, prohibiting the breeding and theatrical performance of captive orcas in California, as well as their export, consistent with federal law, out of North America.
Washington, DC—The California legislature today sent historic legislation to Governor Jerry Brown that would prohibit the breeding and theatrical performance of captive orcas in California, as well as their export, consistent with federal law, out of North America.
A new law in California will phase out the use of lead ammunition for hunting throughout the state. The law, introduced as Assembly Bill 711 in March 2013 by Assembly Member Anthony Rendon, passed both the Assembly and the Senate and was signed by the governor on October 11.
Approximately 305 million egg-laying hens live in the United States at any given time. Between 90 and 95 percent of these birds are packed into tiny, barren wire cages that are stacked in rows, one on top of the other. The egg industry’s trade association, United Egg Producers, only asks producers to give each bird 67 square inches of space—that is considerably smaller than the page on which this article appears in print.
In August 2022, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) published a positive 90-day finding regarding a petition from the sea urchin fishery in California to remove the southern sea otter subspecies (also known as the California sea otter) from t
Kicked, beaten, exposed to extreme temperatures and weather—all too often, animals in slaughter plants are severely mistreated before they are killed.
In a February Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Charles River Laboratories (CRL) disclosed that the US Department of Justice and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are investigating CRL’s conduct regarding several shipments of nonhuman prim
AWI’s Dr. Naomi Rose attended the Marine Mammals of the Holarctic International Conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, in late September, in an effort to learn about, and network among, Russian scientists and managers involved in the disturbing trade in wild-caught belugas and orcas.
Congratulations to the organizers of the Symposium on Social Housing of Laboratory Animals for an extremely informative meeting dedicated to improving the welfare of animals in research.
Despite strong opposition, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) continues to administer the captive-bred wildlife registration program to allow for hunting of exotic and endangered animals on US ranches. Hunters pay large sums to kill otherwise-protected species on enclosed lands. USFWS misinterprets (or ignores) the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to allow for these canned hunts.
In February, the House Committee on Natural Resources held an oversight hearing on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).
Numerous lists of species that are likely to go extinct within the next few years have been published. Front and center on all of them is the tiny, critically endangered porpoise known as the vaquita.