Responding to advocacy by a coalition of animal protection and conservation groups, including AWI, Humboldt County, California, approved a new contract with the federal wildlife-killing program, Wildlife Services, that adds vital protections for t
Date created: June 17, 2020
Last updated: June 17, 2020
In response to advocacy by a coalition of animal protection and conservation groups, Humboldt County today unanimously approved a new contract with the federal wildlife-killing program, Wildlife Services, that will result in far fewer native species being killed.
Date created: May 5, 2020
Last updated: January 18, 2024
One day after a broad coalition of national animal and conservation groups urged the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to terminate its contract with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the board assented to a citizen request to delay consideration of contract renewal for at least a month in order to reevaluate the issues.
Date created: July 2, 2014
Last updated: February 2, 2022
In early January, AWI once again reported on the number of animals killed in barn fires across the United States for the preceding year.
Date created: April 19, 2022
Last updated: April 25, 2022
The Exotic Wildlife Association (EWA) and groupelephant.com have hatched a plan to fly 1,000 of South Africa’s orphaned white rhinos—about 6 percent of that country’s white rhino population—to private ranches in South Texas.
Date created: September 18, 2015
Last updated: January 9, 2020
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) takes exception to comments included in recent media reports characterizing hybrid whales as neither important nor protected under law. Although “Whale 22”—the whale killed last week by Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf—appears to be a hybrid blue-fin whale, as recently reported by Iceland’s Marine and Freshwater Research Institute, this whale is still highly protected.
Date created: July 19, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
The chimpanzees are fascinated with the bubbles floating... run around sticking out their tongues, much as a child collecting snowflakes, and attempting to catch them - a bit bewildered as it disappears. They are even fascinated watching the human attempting to make a LARGE one.
Date created: April 18, 2016
Last updated: October 29, 2020
Conservation and animal protection organizations are horrified at the slaughter today of an endangered fin whale by Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf in defiance of the international ban on commercial whaling.
Date created: June 22, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
For the second year in a row, Kristján Loftsson, CEO of the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, stated that there will likely be no commercial fin whale hunt this summer.
Date created: June 26, 2017
Last updated: June 10, 2021
Today the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), and the Iruka & Kujira [Dolphin & Whale] Action Network (IKAN), expressed dismay at the sale of Icelandic fin whale meat dog treats in Japan. Although the use of Japanese-caught whale and dolphin meat in pet food in Japan has been well-documented, the discovery that Japanese pet food company, Michinoku Farms, is now producing dog snacks using meat from endangered North Atlantic fin whales killed by the Icelandic whaling company, Hvalur hf, is alarming.
Date created: May 23, 2013
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Icelandic media are reporting that the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf killed an endangered fin whale Monday in defiance of the international ban on commercial whaling. The whale was killed some 150 nautical miles off Iceland’s west coast, and was most likely landed at the company’s whaling station in Hvalfjörður, less than an hour’s drive north of Reykjavik.
Date created: June 18, 2013
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Hvalur, Iceland’s sole remaining fin whaling company, announced in March that it intends to resume hunting this summer for the first time since 2018.
Date created: April 19, 2022
Last updated: April 25, 2022
Conservation and animal protection organizations are calling on the Japanese government to prove that a shipment of Icelandic whale products that arrived in Ishinomaki, Japan, yesterday does not include illegally imported meat from hybrid blue-fin whales.
Date created: November 15, 2018
Last updated: February 7, 2022
Almost two years ago, Iceland’s Hvalur Inc., headed by Kristjan Loftsson, suspended its fin whale hunt. It continued however to export thousands of tons of mainly fin whale products, principally to Japan. In fact, Icelandic whale meat now represents 20 percent of whale meat sales in Japan.
Date created: May 21, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020
Conservation and animal welfare groups expressed concern today over news that Iceland’s endangered fin whale hunt will resume this summer.
Date created: April 27, 2012
Last updated: February 2, 2022
Iceland will again allow fin whaling, beginning Sept. 1, but with stricter requirements, the country’s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries announced today.
Date created: August 31, 2023
Last updated: September 6, 2024
Documents obtained by the Washington DC-based Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) show that Norway has begun to play a key role in Iceland's massive exports of whale meat to Japan in defiance of international agreements. Iceland—which has shipped thousands of metric tons of whale products to Japan since resuming commercial whaling in 2006—is now sending shipments of whale meat and blubber to Norway. From there, it is re-exported to Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd., a company heavily involved in Japan's highly controversial "scientific whaling" program currently underway in the Antarctic Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
Date created: January 8, 2014
Last updated: February 2, 2022
No commercial whaling for fin whales has occurred in Iceland since 2019, and in April 2020, the lone remaining minke whaler announced he was permanently stopping whaling. There have also been no exports of any whale products from Iceland to Japan since 2018. While AWI is cautiously optimistic, we continue to monitor the situation as whaling quotas remain valid through 2023, and the hunts could resume at any time through then.
Date created: September 29, 2011
Last updated: June 22, 2023
Members of the “Don’t Buy from Icelandic Whalers” coalition have affirmed that their campaign will continue until Iceland permanently ends commercial whaling and international trading of whale products, despite breaking news that Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf is suspending its summer hunt of endangered fin whales. The coalition, which encourages supermarket and food service representatives to avoid purchasing seafood from Icelandic companies tied to whaling, will promote its agenda during the upcoming Boston-hosted Seafood Expo North America (SENA) beginning Sunday, March 6.
Date created: March 3, 2016
Last updated: February 2, 2022
In July, observers perched on top of the hillside overlooking Iceland’s Hvalur fin whaling station noticed that the large whale being dragged up the slipway looked different.
Date created: September 19, 2018
Last updated: September 19, 2018
The US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program recently killed eight wolf pups on federal public lands in Idaho.
Date created: January 3, 2022
Last updated: January 3, 2022
The number of beef and dairy cattle exported from the U.S. in 2010 to countries other than Canada and Mexico more than quadrupled over the previous year. Live animal exports are up dramatically, especially cattle, as countries like Turkey and Kazakhstan try to establish breeding herds.
Date created: May 4, 2011
Last updated: January 8, 2020
Today, the Illinois House Driver's Education and Safety Committee unanimously approved (11-0) legislation that will outlaw the use of double deck trailers for the purpose of hauling horses in the State of Illinois.
Date created: January 23, 2009
Last updated: February 3, 2022
Date created: December 17, 2020
Last updated: December 17, 2020
Even clean energy can take its toll on animals if caution is thrown to the wind. According to an analysis by Mark Hayes of the University of Colorado, published in the December 2013 issue of the journal BioScience, wind turbines within the contiguous United States killed more than 600,000 bats in 2012—and perhaps as many as 900,000.
Date created: February 25, 2014
Last updated: January 10, 2020
