The infamous private zoo featured in Tiger King finally shuts down. The world’s nations struggle to shape international animal protection agreements without the benefit of in-person meetings during a pandemic. USDA inspection photos document unconscionable conditions at a facility that supplies chinchillas for research. Why protecting predators can boost the economy. AWI’s review of the best dissection alternative tools for classrooms.
Cruelty goes unchecked as “custom-exempt” slaughterhouses evade inspection. A notorious chinchilla dealer lands in court over allegations of abuse. Animals around the world grapple with habitats transformed by climate change. Wild denizens of ANWR get welcome reprieve from oil and gas drilling. AWI aids efforts to cultivate peaceful coexistence with beavers. A Mississippi River sediment diversion plan endangers dolphins. Teen participants in A Voice for Animals contest speak—and act—for a better world.
In this issue, AWI previews CoP19, a critical November gathering of nations and animal advocates in Panama to weigh protections for hippos, horned lizards, and a host of other wild species under threat from international trade. Horrifying conditions lead to closure of a dog-breeding facility in Virginia owned by one of the world’s largest research suppliers. The USDA fails to prevent deceptive animal-raising claims on food packaging. On Capitol Hill, the Big Cat Public Safety Act passes the House, and other animal welfare legislation gains ground.
Progress in our efforts to bolster federal protections for racehorses and walking horses. Fighting the use of horrific methods to “depopulate” chicken flocks exposed to bird flu. A new edition of AWI’s comprehensive analysis of the ills inherent in marine mammal captivity. How financial incentives are fueling an illegal trade in wild primates for research. Celebrating the ongoing work by one of our own and the legacy of a departed hero on behalf of the world’s whales.
AWI reports from the CITES Animals Committee meeting in Geneva and its implications for wildlife protections in international trade. We press the USDA to help state officials clamp down on animal abuse in US slaughter plants. A new AWI initiative helps researchers and policymakers access valuable FBI data to study and address animal cruelty crimes. Supporting efforts to establish marine mammal protection areas in the Atlantic. Helping animal caregivers provide better lives to rodents and rabbits in research.
The monarch butterfly population is crashing. Over a 50-acre swatch of central Mexico each winter, monarch butterflies once formed a living blanket over the trees. They now occupy less than three of those acres. Last winter’s butterfly numbers in Mexico were down 59 percent from the year before.
AWI seeks to advance the welfare of animals raised for agricultural purposes–on the farm, during transport, and at slaughter. We support plant-based food choices and higher-welfare options when animal products are consumed and work to ensure accuracy and transparency in animal-product marketing claims pertaining to the welfare of farmed animals.
The Animal Welfare Institute prepares brief fact sheets on a variety of topics related to the use of animals in agriculture. Each of the following fact sheets is available as a downloadable PDF.
Though seven states have passed legislation to phase out common industry practices that confine farm animals in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs, AWI remains concerned that these laws will not actually end the use of cages and crates.
AWI prepares reports on the history and current status of laws that affect the welfare of farm animals. The content of each paper is kept updated, and all of the reports are available as a downloadable PDF.
Ohio's new farm animal care regulations went into effect in September. Ohio follows New Jersey as only the second state to establish legal standards for the treatment of animals on the farm.
The Animal Welfare Institute prepares comprehensive papers on topics related to the welfare of animals used in agriculture. Each of the following reports is available as a downloadable PDF.
AWI works every day to improve the lives of farm animals. We endeavor to get animal welfare laws and regulations passed, pressure the agriculture industry to improve its standards, and educate the public through reports and action alerts—all in the name of giving farm animals a life worth living.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) commends the House-Senate conference committee for rejecting provisions that would have been harmful to animals in the final version of the Farm Bill, which was released last night, while retaining measures that will benefit animals.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is gravely disappointed to learn that an estimated 100 bottlenose dolphins were slaughtered Friday in the latest Faroe Islands drive hunt.
Over the past several decades, the poultry industry has used selective breeding to double the average market weight of chickens raised for meat while cutting nearly in half the amount of time it takes for birds to reach market weight.
Each year in the United States, hundreds of racehorses die on tracks across the country—a death toll that far exceeds the number of fatalities in other racing jurisdictions around the world. Why the difference?
The link between animal agriculture and greenhouse gas emissions is increasingly a key focus of the debate over how to reduce global warming. An August 2019 report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlights this connection and recommends a shift toward plant-based diets as one approach to solving the climate crisis.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James B. Comey officially announced a historic change in the identification and reporting of animal cruelty crime statistics. The FBI will now report animal cruelty crimes as a separate offense under the agency’s Uniform Crime Report (UCR) Program, the prime source of information on crime in the United States.
Persistence pays off! In June, after years of effort by AWI staff members, the FBI’s Advisory Policy Board (APB) unanimously approved the addition of animal cruelty crimes as a separate entry in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). The FBI director approved the APB’s recommendation on September 11.
