US Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) reintroduced the Ejiao Act Tuesday in the House of Representatives to ban the sale and trade of ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) products in the United States.
The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has published a proposed change to transportation regulations in order to reduce accidents and paperwork burdens.
Elephants were once a common sight throughout the Asian and African continents. Due to their prized tusks, however, they were hunted in massive numbers throughout the 19th century. Now, restrictions on ivory trade have allowed some populations to stabilize, although they remain severely depleted across the whole of their former ranges. They also face other threats from habitat destruction, continued poaching for ivory, meat and hides; trophy hunting; and removal because of conflicts with humans.
In the article beginning on page 6, we discuss the unrelenting slaughter of African elephants for their ivory. In the United States, import of African elephant ivory has been prohibited—via the African Elephant Conservation Act— since 1989, the same year that countries around the world enacted similar import bans. You can, however, import raw ivory into the United States from sport-hunted trophies.
One hundred years ago, Côte d’Ivoire—a nation that takes its name from the once-flourishing ivory trade that ran through its ports—was home to between 3,000 and 5,000 forest elephants.
In Elephants on the Edge, G.A. Bradshaw exposes how - through mass slaughter, poaching and capture - we have ravaged elephant populations, while drawing comparisons between the ways people and elephants respond to traumatic situations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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).
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.
