Florida’s black bears get a one year reprieve from hunting after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted 4-3 to suspend hunts while it gathered more information about bear populations in the state. Last year’s hunt, the first in 21 years, resulted in the death of some 300 bears in two days.
In 2015, Florida’s black bears suffered an estimated 20 percent population decline amidst the first state-authorized hunt since 1994. In 2016, the controversial hunt was put on hold for a year.
More Florida manatees have died this year than in any previous year since records began. The cause is primarily starvation due to loss of seagrass beds, according to state officials.
Three Sisters Springs is an important 1.5 acre manatee wintering area within the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge on Florida’s Gulf coast, about 50 miles north of Tampa. The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) is an endangered subspecies of the West Indian manatee.
Outbreaks of algae may once again be taking a heavy toll on the West Indian manatee population in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. Since May, nine manatee carcasses have been found, all bearing signs of gastric trauma related to the spread of algae in the polluted lagoon.
On March 23, National Puppy Day, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed “Ponce’s Law” to increase penalties for animal abusers.
Since April, over 140 wild horses have died from influenza exacerbated by a bacterial infection at a Colorado holding facility in Cañon City in what is thought to be the largest disease outbreak in the Bureau of Land Management’s fraught history o
As a resource for food and medicine, wildlife has long been a commodity in commerce. Humans hunt, trap and fish for animals to sell as food and medicine.
More and more consumers are seeking to avoid products from “factory farms”—where animals are kept in abysmal conditions. Such consumers often look for animal-raising claims on packaging labels that purport to indicate higher-welfare conditions.
Wenonah Hauter’s Foodopoly weaves nearly every aspect of the food system—from retail and fast food to the indentured nature of farming contracts—into a unique and highly accessible analysis of not just America’s food systems, but how they fit into what is now a global corporate food web.
The conclusion of a study almost always means euthanasia (from the Greek for “easy death”) for animals in research. As with all phases of research, there are moral, regulatory, and scientific imperatives to use the least painful and stressful method possible. These imperatives have led to much debate, including a recent symposium sponsored by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) that focused on improving animal euthanasia methods, due to growing realization that one of the most commonly used methods is inhumane, causing both pain and distress.
The occasion was the official presentation to the Library of Congress of A Dangerous Life, a graphic novel written and illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka and published by AWI and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) that addresses the global ivory trade and the heavy toll it takes on elephants and those on the ground dedicated to their protection.
Forest elephant populations throughout Central and West Africa have declined from 700,000 to 100,000 animals over the past several decades, primarily due to poaching and habitat loss.
Last October, the US Forest Service (USFS)—which manages approximately 8,000 wild horses and burros in the United States—made a shocking announcement: The agency would soon begin rounding up and selling horses from California’s largest herd withou
Three Rhesus macaques died gruesome deaths in late May, at the AAALAC-accredited New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) in Louisiana.
The Animal Welfare Institute is offering free copies of some publications, by request, to research laboratory personnel and IACUC members.
In 2013, the Korean Animal Welfare Association (KAWA), local scientists, and government officials planned the release of five captive bottlenose dolphins—named Je-dol, Sampal, Chunsam, Taesan, and Boksoon—who had been illegally captured from a population living in the waters surrounding Jeju Island, South Korea. AWI’s Dr. Naomi Rose advised this effort, visiting South Korea twice at KAWA’s invitation to discuss the release plans.