Hauling horses in double-deck trailers is dangerous and inhumane. These trailers do not provide sufficient headroom for horses to stand upright. They often endure long journeys in cramped positions and suffer serious injuries.
Date created: August 20, 2019
Last updated: August 30, 2024
The use of double-deck trailers to transport horses is inhumane and can lead to debilitating injuries. With their low ceiling clearance, these trailers are designed to haul shorter and stouter animals such as cattle and hogs, not horses.
Date created: June 17, 2020
Last updated: April 17, 2024
In June, the US Supreme Court declined to take up a case involving a challenge to the oversight authority of the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (HISA) by the states of Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Louisiana; their respective ra
Date created: September 4, 2024
Last updated: September 13, 2024
Hundreds of thousands of horseshoe crabs are used for endotoxin testing in the United States each year, bled for their blood’s ability to clot in the presence of toxins.
Date created: December 15, 2023
Last updated: December 22, 2023
On June 18, 2014, the US House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the FY2015 defense appropriations bill to improve the lives of wounded warriors through better access to service dogs.
Date created: August 21, 2014
Last updated: April 24, 2024
The US House of Representatives is set to vote this week on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 8998), a bill that severely slashes conservation funding for the coming fiscal year and leaves imperiled species with a fraction of the resources necessary to promote recovery.
Date created: July 22, 2024
Last updated: September 5, 2024
The language to disallow funding for inspections, originally passed into law in 2005 with bipartisan support, has effectively halted horse slaughter operations on American soil for years—that is, until late last year when three legislators quietly removed it from the Fiscal Year 2012 Appropriations bill behind closed doors during the reconciliation process.
Date created: June 19, 2012
Last updated: February 2, 2022
In yet another resounding victory for America's horses, the House Appropriations Committee voted in favor of language sponsored by Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) prohibiting the US Department of Agriculture from spending tax dollars on inspecting horse slaughter facilities.
Date created: June 1, 2011
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) reintroduced the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), H.R. 965 on March 9.
Date created: May 4, 2011
Last updated: April 24, 2024
A wide range of equine-related issues have come up in Congress this session, and wild horses in particular have been the subject of considerable deliberation among federal lawmakers.
Date created: September 14, 2018
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Today, more than 14 members of the US House of Representatives introduced legislation that would prohibit organizing, sponsoring, conducting, or participating in wildlife killing contests on more than 500 million acres of US public lands.
Date created: May 22, 2024
Last updated: September 5, 2024
The breeding and sale of big cats as “pets” has long been a problem in this country, where an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 large cats are privately owned.
Date created: May 4, 2012
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Shutting the door on horse slaughter and Class B dealers: In its fiscal year 2017 spending bill for the US Department of Agriculture, the House Appropriations Committee included two AWI priorities. The bill bars the expenditure of funds for licensing or relicensing Class B dealers who sell dogs and cats for use in research, teaching, or testing.
Date created: July 6, 2016
Last updated: January 15, 2020
For 45 years, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) has succeeded in its mission to protect individual marine mammals, as well as entire populations, from harassment, injury, and death due to human activities.
Date created: January 4, 2018
Last updated: April 24, 2024
Since 2017, the alarming number of North Atlantic right whale deaths from entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes has been deemed an “unusual mortality event” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act by NOAA.
Date created: August 19, 2021
Last updated: April 17, 2024
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Take Reduction Teams—composed of industry leaders, scientists, nongovernmental organizations, and state and federal officials—advise NMFS on reducing harm to marine mammals from fishing gear.
Date created: July 1, 2019
Last updated: April 17, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) commends the House Appropriations Committee for including an amendment in the Fiscal Year 2015 Agriculture Appropriations bill to defund federally required inspections of horse slaughter facilities in the United States—a measure that would effectively prevent such plants from operating.
Date created: May 29, 2014
Last updated: February 2, 2022
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) commend the US House Appropriations committee for advancing bipartisan language today that would require the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to implement an immunocontraceptive fertility control program to manage wild horses and burros and evaluate other on-range management options, including relocating horses to less populated Herd Management Areas.
Date created: July 1, 2021
Last updated: January 18, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) applauds Chairman James Oberstar (D-MN), of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, for bringing the Horse Transportation Safety Act (H.R. 305) before his Committee and supporting its swift unanimous passage.
Date created: July 29, 2010
Last updated: February 2, 2022
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is expressing strong opposition to the House Natural Resources Committee’s decision to hold a hearing and markup September 26 on a package of nine bills designed to undercut crucial conservation tools. On the same day, the committee is scheduled to vote on a bill blocking federal protections for gray wolves across the contiguous United States. These bills would impose damaging and unnecessary revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and undermine the government’s ability to protect imperiled species.
Date created: September 25, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted to maintain the long-standing ban on horse slaughterhouse inspections by the US Department of Agriculture. Prohibiting these inspections effectively prevents such plants from operating in this country.
Date created: September 1, 2017
Last updated: April 24, 2024
The US House Committee on Agriculture will weigh in Thursday on the long-awaited, 942-page Farm Bill, a massive legislative package — reauthorized every five years or so — that serves as a key driver of food and agriculture policy in the United States and touches on a number of other policy areas affecting animal welfare.
Date created: May 22, 2024
Last updated: September 5, 2024
A mammoth 640-plus-page farm bill draft (H.R. 2) was released yesterday and is scheduled for committee action next week. According to the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), the draft represents a mixed bag for animals. AWI commended the committee for omitting some of the language from past farm bills that the organization considers deeply harmful, but is urging committee members to make changes to other sections that have profound impacts on animal welfare.
Date created: April 13, 2018
Last updated: May 2, 2022
As of mid-August, the US Senate as a whole was getting very little done, but the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee reported out three bills: the Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act (S 877), the Driftnet Modernization and Bycatch Reductio
Date created: September 3, 2020
Last updated: September 3, 2020
With the second session of the 115th Congress well underway, AWI president Cathy Liss sent a letter to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) requesting support for these legislative priorities in the coming year: the Preventing Animal Cruelt
Date created: March 23, 2018
Last updated: March 23, 2018
