Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Farm Sanctuary, working with the Animal Law Clinic at Lewis & Clark Law School, petitioned the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to develop regulations governing the handling of chickens, turkeys, and other birds at slaughter. The petition calls for FSIS to write regulations to address bird handling and slaughter practices that result in adulterated products, as is the agency’s duty under the Poultry Products Inspection Act (PPIA).
Conservation organizations today challenged North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission’s authorization of coyote hunting—including by spotlight at night—in the five county area of eastern North Carolina inhabited by the world’s only wild population of about 100 red wolves. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the complaint in the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina on behalf of the Animal Welfare Institute, Red Wolf Coalition, and Defenders of Wildlife.
Conservation groups petitioned the US National Marine Fisheries Service today to ban imports of seafood caught with gillnets in Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California in an effort to save the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.
Nineteen conservation and animal welfare groups, representing tens of millions of US citizens, today called on the Secretaries of Commerce and Interior to impose trade sanctions against Iceland for its escalating defiance of international conservation agreements on commercial whaling.
This Thursday the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats (COAST) will stage a colorful enactment outside the headquarters of the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration Fisheries Division (NMFS).
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Cetacean Society International (CSI), Earth Island Institute (EII), and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) lauded the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for its proposed designation of the Sakhalin Bay-Amur River population of beluga whales in Russia as depleted under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). A depleted designation would make it illegal to import any belugas from this population into the United States for public display. The proposed rule must undergo a 60-day public comment period before it is finalized.
According to a new study published in the journal Biological Conservation, breeding farms in Indonesia are being used to launder thousands of illegally caught snakes each year.
Rats and mice are often used as cancer models—meaning cancer is induced in these animals to study the progression of the disease and potential treatments in hopes of translating the findings into successful treatments of human cancers.
Two Tennessee men pleaded guilty in early January to selling tusks from over 100 narwhals over a 10-year period. The sales, conducted over the Internet and directly to known collectors, reaped more than $1.5 million for the traffickers, Jay Conrad of Lakeland and Eddie Dunn of Eads.
In a move welcomed by the conservation community, the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery will no longer seek recertification under the “blue fish tick” ecolabel, a program of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that purportedly assures consumers that products carrying the label come from “sustainable” fisheries.
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has suspended its certification of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery after determining that the fishery was potentially jeopardizing the survival of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.
A petition including nearly half a million signatures was delivered to the US Fish and Wildlife Service today, urging the agency to fulfill its legal duty under the Endangered Species Act to recover the critically endangered red wolf.
In 2008 an undercover investigation showing heinous animal cruelty led to the largest beef recall in US history. The meat recalled came from Westland/Hallmark Meat Packing Co. in Chino, California.
Concerned groups asked a state court to stop spotlight hunting of coyotes at night in North Carolina—including the area inhabited by the world’s only wild population of about 100 red wolves—after one or more of the wolves was killed. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the motion for preliminary injunction (read Memo in Support of Motion for Preliminary Injunction here) and a request for expedited hearing in Wake County Superior Court on behalf of the Animal Welfare Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Red Wolf Coalition.
It would appear that some in Congress are all talk when it comes to seriously reducing federal spending and decreasing the size of government. Despite overwhelming objections from the American public and the horse community, and despite Congress’ own supposed belief in fiscal restraint, the fate of America’s horses was undermined by three Members of Congress and their staffs behind closed doors this week.
For most people with pets, handling and training their animals is important. Living with an “undomesticated” pet can be trying, especially when the day comes for a visit to the veterinarian. The same should be true for our laboratory rodents. If we handle and train them well, our work with the animals becomes easier and safer, and we help the animals feel safe in the procedures to which they are exposed.
In 2010, nearly 200 dogs and over 50 cats were saved from a North Carolina animal testing facility, after an undercover investigation exposed callous treatment and even malicious abuse of the animals by laboratory personnel.
In an attempt to clarify its procedures, the US Department of Agriculture published a new guidance document that explains the department’s approval process for animal raising claims such as humanely raised, free range, and pasture raised.
Willie Nelson and Hard Rock International announce the launch of the limited-edition Willie Nelson Artist Spotlight merchandise program today, benefiting Animal Welfare Institute and the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance. The line, a partnership between the musician, activist, author and poet and the world-renowned brand, includes a men’s t-shirt, a limited edition collector pin as well as an online exclusive pin and, fittingly, a bandanna that will be available online and in-store at participating locations on June 6, 2013.
Hardy Jones, who died in December, was a videographer who used his skills behind the camera, along with his warm and kind personality, to expose the world to the beauty of dolphins and their ocean habitats—as well as to expose those who hurt and e
In a stunning move, Harvard University announced in April that it was closing the New England National Primate Research Center (NENPRC). The closure—to be finalized by 2015, with the Center’s almost 2,000 monkeys placed at other labs—follows repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act, which had forced Harvard to convene a committee to review and improve operations at the off-campus facility.
Just months after Harvard stunned the research community by announcing the closure of the half-century-old New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC)—as reported in the Summer 2013 AWI Quarterly—USDA announced that it had fined Harvard Medical School a paltry $24,036 for 11 violations of the Animal Welfare Act that occurred between 2011 and 2012.
