AWI aims to foster a respect for all living things and an understanding of the positive impact that compassionate attitudes and behaviors can have on animals, the environment, and ourselves. AWI seeks to empower students of all backgrounds to improve the lives of animals and encourages educators to develop animal-friendly lesson plans that avoid treating animals as disposable commodities.
A summary of laws related to the use of animals in school and classroom activities, as well as laws that mandate the teaching of respect for, and humane treatment of, animals.
A dramatic die-off of vultures in India due to accidental poisoning was associated with a greater than 4 percent increase in human death rates from 2000 to 2005.
The federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (P.L. 85-765) is signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 27. The Act requires all meat companies selling to the US government to provide stunning by mechanical, electrical, or chemical means prior to the killing of cattle, calves, horses, mules, sheep, swine, and other livestock, except in the case of slaughter for religious or ritual purposes. Stunning must be accomplished in a manner that is rapid and effective before the animal is shackled, hoisted, thrown, cast, or cut. (While the law refers to “other livestock,” poultry is not specifically included.)
As families across the country begin planning their Thanksgiving feasts, consumers interested in purchasing higher-welfare or sustainably raised turkeys will be confronted with a slew of misleading labels sanctioned by the USDA.
A new report, Humane Slaughter Update: Comparing State and Federal Enforcement of Humane Slaughter Laws, has just been published by the Animal Welfare Institute.
Kaitlyn Gaynor et al., in a study published in Science in June, found that in areas of high human activity, animals are choosing to conduct more of their own affairs at night.
Throughout the world, the vast majority of mammalian, avian, and piscine species are exploited, directly or indirectly, by humans. Broadly speaking, human management of terrestrial wildlife can be subdivided into three categories: ungulates including deer, carnivores and omnivores, and other species.
Americans tuning in to ABC Nightly News one evening last fall were likely shocked by video footage of the inhumane treatment of laying hens at several facilities owned by egg giant, Sparboe Farms. The footage captured routine cruelties commonly practiced in the egg industry, such as beak cutting without pain relief, as well as acts of intentional cruelty toward the birds by workers.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
