The Southern Weekly, one of China's most influential newspapers, published a front-page story about the widespread massacre of elephants for ivory, and of ivory consumption in China as the primary driver of the crisis.
Date created: February 25, 2014
Last updated: January 10, 2020
The siege is getting worse. African elephants are being killed at a greater rate than at any time since the worldwide ban on the ivory trade was adopted in 1989. Every 15 minutes, on average, an elephant is killed illegally in Africa to feed an insatiable demand for ivory, principally from Asia.
Date created: February 19, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
Eloquence of the Sardine: Extraordinary Encounters Beneath the Sea by Bill François, a French physicist and naturalist, is full of fascinating and thought-provoking information about life beneath the waves. Through science and storytelling, François explores the lives of many sea creatures and the remarkable ways they live, communicate, reproduce, find food, play, and escape predators (including humans). Take, for instance, the amazing sardine, whose scales perfectly refract light to avoid detection from above, below, and to the side, and who live together in the thousands, leaderless but effortlessly in sync.
Date created: January 3, 2022
Last updated: April 17, 2024
When natural disasters or other emergencies occur at locations with farmed animals, the impacts can be devastating.
Date created: September 11, 2023
Last updated: September 11, 2023
Date created: January 26, 2023
Last updated: September 4, 2024
Conservation groups submitted an emergency petition today calling on the US Fish and Wildlife Service to take immediate steps to bolster flagging protections for the world’s only wild population of red wolves—which has declined by more than 50 percent in just two years – to as few as 45 wolves. The decline occurred after the Service—responding to pressure from those opposed to wolf recovery—deliberately abandoned wolf-recovery efforts and dramatically curtailed investigations of illegal wolf shootings.
Date created: May 24, 2016
Last updated: February 2, 2022
When natural disasters or other emergencies occur, you may need to take quick action to save yourself, your family members, and—perhaps most challenging—your companion animals. With proper preparation, however, seeing to the safety of an animal in such situations need not be difficult or add extra risks to you and your family.
Date created: September 26, 2011
Last updated: April 1, 2021
An emergency rule to protect loggerhead sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico took effect on May 18 and will be upheld for at least 180 days.
Date created: August 11, 2009
Last updated: January 16, 2020
William McKeever’s Emperors of the Deep: The Ocean’s Most Mysterious, Most Misunderstood, and Most Important Guardians highlights the significance of sharks to the oceans’ delicate ecosystems and reveals the horrendous threats jeopardizing their continued existence.
Date created: October 11, 2019
Last updated: April 17, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is looking forward to Giving Tuesday—a global day of giving. Giving Tuesday (December 3 this year) is a perfect opportunity during the holiday season to contribute toward a better world.
Date created: November 25, 2019
Last updated: November 17, 2020
A coalition of 114 representatives and 48 senators recently urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to finalize a Horse Protection Act (HPA) rule that would significantly curb the pernicious practice of “soring,” which involves the deliberate infliction of pain on a horse’s hooves and legs to create an exaggerated high-stepping gait for certain competitions.
Date created: June 9, 2021
Last updated: April 17, 2024
In October, Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) reintroduced the Ejiao Act (HR 6021) to protect donkeys from a burgeoning global trade that has claimed millions of these animals’ lives and resulted in terrible suffering.
Date created: December 15, 2023
Last updated: April 17, 2024
The US Department of Agriculture published a proposed rule in March that should end the rubber-stamping of renewals for dealers and exhibitors licensed under the Animal Welfare Act, regardless of whether they comply with the law’s minimal standard
Date created: July 1, 2019
Last updated: July 1, 2019
In February 2020, AWI, along with Farm Sanctuary, Animal Legal Defense Fund, Animal Outlook, Compassion in World Farming, Farm Forward, and Mercy For Animals, sued the US Department of Agriculture and its Food Safety and Inspection Service, allegi
Date created: February 26, 2020
Last updated: June 13, 2024
In a big step forward for animals around the world, President Obama signed the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act into law. This bipartisan legislation was championed by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). A similar bill, the Global Anti-Poaching Act, led by Representatives Ed Royce (R-CA) and Eliot Engel (D-NY), passed the House of Representatives late last year and helped pave the way for the END Wildlife Trafficking Act.
Date created: October 11, 2016
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Today the Animal Welfare Institute petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to add the thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata) to the list of federally protected species under the Endangered Species Act.
Date created: August 11, 2011
Last updated: February 2, 2022
In a precedent setting decision, a federal court judge has issued a comprehensive ruling that an industrial wind energy farm in Greenbrier County, WV would kill and injure endangered Indiana bats in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Date created: February 25, 2010
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Just like terrestrial animals, the creatures of the sea face myriad threats to their survival, both anthropogenic and natural, and many are in trouble. Our oceans appear vast and teeming with life, and until recently, were routinely viewed as containing infinite resources.
Date created: October 25, 2016
Last updated: September 5, 2024
The Earth is now in the midst of its sixth major animal (and plant) extinction. The last mass extinction - approximately 65 million years ago - caused the disappearance of the dinosaurs. Although extinctions are naturally occurring, the current mass extinction is unique in that it is caused almost entirely by humans.
Date created: September 23, 2011
Last updated: April 16, 2024
On October 15, the Endangered Species Preservation Act (P.L. 89-669) is signed into law. The Act provides for the listing of native threatened and endangered species by the Secretary of the Interior (additional protection for endangered species is granted with the enactment of the Endangered Species Conservation Act of 1969 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973).
Date created: September 30, 2011
Last updated: April 13, 2023
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Defenders of Wildlife (Defenders) filed a petition today with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to list the Northwest Atlantic population of the thorny skate (Amblyraja radiata), a species of fish, as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Date created: May 28, 2015
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) filed anti-wildlife amendments to the energy bill that reached the Senate floor in early February. He, too, proposed removing gray wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes states from ESA protection, and prohibiting the US Fish and Wildlife Service from listing the northern long-eared bat as endangered under the ESA.
Date created: April 5, 2016
Last updated: January 15, 2020
Rodents are often restrained for data collection procedures, such as blood collection and injection, by coaxing them into tubes, for example syringe cylinders or perspex tubes. Such enforced restraint/immobilization presumably exposes the animal subject to considerable stress.
Date created: May 24, 2009
Last updated: October 30, 2020
Attending animal fights and bringing children to such spectacles would become federal offenses under the Animal Welfare Act as a result of provisions in the farm bills of both chambers of Congress.
Date created: August 23, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
In In the wild, foraging for food occupies much of a primate's day. Considerable energy is expended as the animal travels its range in its search for food. Primates have evolved special abilities which enable them to deal with food-gathering in a unique way.
Date created: May 11, 2016
Last updated: August 27, 2020
