Today, a federal judge issued an order declaring that the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) violated the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act in its rollback of protections for the world’s only wild population of red wolves, who live in eastern North Carolina. US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina Chief Judge Terrence W. Boyle also made permanent the court’s September 29, 2016, order stopping the USFWS from capturing and killing red wolves and authorizing private landowners to do the same.
The US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina today issued a preliminary injunction that orders the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to stop capturing and killing—and authorizing private landowners to capture and kill—members of the rapidly dwindling population of wild red wolves.
A federal district court will hear arguments Thursday on a lawsuit brought by wildlife conservation and animal welfare organizations against the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for allowing trappers in Maine to kill and seriously injure Canada lynx, a federally protected cat.
The California Superior Court ruled last week that Monterey County’s renewal of its contract with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program to kill predators and other native wildlife violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and voided the county’s 2016 work plan.
The California Superior Court issued an order yesterday denying Monterey County’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit, filed in June by animal protection and conservation organizations, that challenges the county’s contract renewal with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services. This notorious federal program has killed more than 3,000 coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions and other animals in the county in the past six years, largely in the name of protecting livestock.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Whale & Dolphin Conservation (WDC), Cetacean Society International (CSI), and Earth Island Institute (EII) today filed their joint response to Georgia Aquarium, Inc., in the case of Georgia Aquarium, Inc. v. Pritzker—a lawsuit Georgia Aquarium filed to overturn a decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to deny the Aquarium’s application for a permit to import 18 wild-caught beluga whales from Russia’s Sea of Okhotsk for purposes of public display. Georgia Aquarium’s “motion on the merits” seeks to have a federal judge order NMFS to not only overturn the decision but also order the agency to grant the permit.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now confirmed four cases of humans infected with a variant of the coronavirus originating in farmed mink during an outbreak in Eaton County, Michigan, in late 2020 and early 2021—two mink farm emp
Maryland has placed a two-year moratorium on killing contests targeting cownose rays. The new law also directs the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to create a fishery management plan for the species by the end of 2018.
More than 40 scientists, veterinarians, and attorneys and a coalition of wildlife advocacy organizations including Project Coyote, Indiana Coyote Rescue (ICR), and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) have submitted a formal letter and data urging the Indiana Natural Resources Commission to support two formal petitions to prohibit the taking, killing and harassment of coyotes and red foxes for “penning” purposes and for use as live bait in the wild.
Few Americans know that almost every day of every year, somewhere in the United States coyotes are being slaughtered as part of a contest or bounty—where money or prizes are awarded for killing the largest, the most, or even pregnant coyotes.
Since the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) approved a temporary rule in August 2012 to allow night hunting of coyotes in the state, at least nine critically endangered red wolves have been shot. This was entirely to be expected. Red wolves and coyotes are similar in size, coats, and coloring, so red wolves are frequently mistaken for coyotes, even in daylight
In January, the City Council of Arcadia, California voted unanimously to cancel a contract with a private wildlife removal firm to snare and kill coyotes within the city. Public outcry against the contract - which cost the city $30,000 a year and resulted in the death of 20 coyotes - prompted the council to hold a special "study session" and, ultimately, to terminate the program.
AWI recently attended the annual meeting of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) in Baltimore—the largest meeting on laboratory animals in the United States.
AWI entered into a unique partnership with HarperCollins Children’s Books last year to produce educational materials on endangered species and what we can do to protect them.
The Biden administration released its final phase II rule updating regulations that implement the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), our country’s basic charter for the protection of the environment.
“To us, roads signify connection and escape; to other life-forms, they spell death and division.” Ben Goldfarb’s Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet is an engaging study of “road ecology,” or how the invention of cars—and the paved roads that followed—have impacted life on Earth, including that of humans.
A highly successful series of workshops in March in Ohio has led to lasting connections that could improve interventions and lead to prevention in cases of animal abuse and family violence.
Some good news: The Senate unanimously passed legislation, introduced by Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Richard Burr (R-NC), to restore the ban on crush videos (see Summer 2010 AWI Quarterly, p. 5).
Crush videos are recordings which typically depict women in stilettos or bare feet literally crushing, stomping on, or impaling small, helpless animals to satisfy the bizarre sexual fetishes of sadistic viewers.
On September 8, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced that Ashley Nicole Richards pleaded guilty to five counts of producing and distributing crush videos that depicted the torturing and killing of dogs and cats.
Following substantial public outcry, Colorado State University (CSU) announced yesterday that it was withdrawing from a joint plan with the Bureau of Land Management to conduct surgical sterilization experiments on wild horses.
Hugh Warwick, a British ecologist, has spent decades studying his favorite species, the hedgehog. In his fourth book, Cull of the Wild: Killing in the Name of Conservation, Warwick shifts his focus to examine the complex and controversial practice of culling invasive species to save native species in the United Kingdom.
