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The government of South Africa, one of the largest captive hunting regions on the globe, officially banned the canned hunting of lions in June.

Accredited zoos, aquariums, marine theme parks, and swim-with-dolphin operations—places that naturally concentrate large groups of people—were among the first tourism venues to close their doors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On January 23, in Utrecht, the Netherlands, an appeals court heard the arguments of the Free Morgan Foundation (FMF) for revoking the certificate (permit) that allowed the orca known as Morgan to be transferred from a Dutch aquarium to a zoo in Sp

The Captive Primate Safety Act (HR 8164/S 4206) was reintroduced in May by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), with AWI’s strong endorsement.

Almost two decades ago the US aquarium industry—facing mounting public distaste with the practice—ceased importing healthy wild-caught cetaceans for commercial display. Since then, people across the globe have come to realize that no aquarium can replicate the wild habitat these animals need and their importance in healthy marine ecosystems.

Rising acidity levels in seawater, resulting from the ocean absorbing increasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide, are causing clownfish some serious problems.

Currently, there is no federal oversight of the use of invertebrates in research in the United States.

A LAREF Discussion

The Caribbean Environment Programme was established in 1981 as one of the United Nations’ “Regional Seas” programs, in recognition of the importance and value of the Wider Caribbean’s fragile and vulnerable coastal and marine ecosystems.

Few Americans have heard of the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services (WS) program. Even fewer are aware that their tax dollars subsidize the killing of millions of animals every year under this program; between 2004 and 2007, WS killed 8,378,412 animals (Keefover-Ring 2009).

Dr. Carole Carlson, a valiant advocate for the conservation of whales and their marine environment, died on March 24 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, of pancreatic cancer. She was 69.

The animal protection community lost a true champion for chimpanzees on May 2, when Dr. Carole Noon passed away at 59 years of age after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) engages in precedent-setting litigation on behalf of animals in state and federal courts across the country, and most recently has been involved in nationally recognized cases to promote the welfare of horses, elephants, bats and marine mammals. Starting with the staff at our Washington, D.C.

Michelle Welch

As Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney for Richmond, VA

Unimaginable. Traumatic. That’s how the veterinarians who treated Cub described his injuries. He was discovered hobbling along a road in New Mexico; his body riddled with shotgun pellets as he tried to move on the exposed ends of bones where his hind legs once were. He had been caught in a steel-jaw leghold trap, and after being discovered by the trapper, he was shot. Still, somehow, he survived.

In a tragedy that made international headlines, Cecil the lion, a 13-year-old pride leader described as the “biggest tourist attraction” of Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, was killed by American trophy hunter Walter James Palmer in July.