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.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Florida state, county and school officials, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is calling for a full investigation into the alleged drowning of multiple animals last week in front of students by a faculty member at Forest High School in Ocala.
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.
A risky and reckless experiment that aimed to capture whales in Norway and test how they would respond to ocean noise ended on June 30 with no measurable results—apart from causing unnecessary stress to a juvenile minke whale.
Starting with the valid premise that all enrichment for captive animals should provide for species-specific behaviors, the Primate Foundation of Arizona (PFA) looked first to foraging behavior as one that occupied as much as six to eight hours of the day in the life of the wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) (Goodall 1986). Therefore, opportunity to forage throughout the day should be considered an important component of enrichment provided to captive chimpanzees (Fritz & Howell 1993).
Earlier this week, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) voiced their opposition to the Bureau of Land Management’s barbaric proposal to surgically sterilize wild horses using an experimental and inhumane procedure. As of Monday’s deadline, more than 12,000 citizens and numerous veterinary experts had also submitted comments opposing the procedure.
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
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and others seek permission for three former circus employees to join in their federal lawsuit against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus under the Endangered Species Act. The suit alleges that Ringling Bros. mistreats and abuses the Asian elephants it uses in shows all across the country.
The Foundation to Protect New Mexico Wildlife today announced it has formalized an agreement with the Navajo Nation to develop a comprehensive and humane program to manage the thousands of free-roaming horses on the reservation. The ultimate goal of the agreement is to develop alternatives to transporting the horses to slaughter facilities.
Responding to legal pressure from a coalition of animal-protection and conservation groups, Siskiyou County officials recently announced that the county has suspended its contract with the notorious federal wildlife-killing program known as Wildlife Services. The program killed more than 28,000 animals in the county from 2008 to 2016.
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.
For 10 years, the Animals Asia Foundation has made it its mission to rescue and rehabilitate majestic moon bears from cruel bear bile farms in China and Vietnam. In celebration of the many success stories and in memory of the losses, Animals Asia has released a picture book of the bears that have touched their lives and were given a chance at a life free of pain and torture.
Friday Night Fighters is not for the faint of heart. Readers of mysteries know going in there will be a murder or two, but they may find the abuse of animals more disturbing. There is a good bit of both in Friday Night Fighters, but all in the service of shining a spotlight on the dog fighting underworld.
