This year, as Japan struggles to recover from the economic slump caused by COVID-19, its government is spending more than 5 billion yen ($39 million) to support a whaling industry so desperate for customers it is peddling its product as dog treats.
Having failed to persuade the International Whaling Commission (IWC) at its September 2018 meeting to overturn its longstanding ban on commercial whaling, Japan left the IWC on June 30, 2019, after nearly seven decades of membership. On July 1, Japan announced commercial whaling quotas authorizing the annual slaughter of 25 sei whales, 187 Bryde’s whales, and 171 minke whales.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and the Iruka & Kujira [Dolphin & Whale] Action Network (IKAN) welcome a Japanese company’s decision to stop selling pet treats made from endangered fin whales. The four organizations earlier expressed dismay that Icelandic whaling company Hvalur hf was exporting fin whale meat to Japan, where it was being manufactured into dog snacks.
Japan has a centuries-long history of small-scale coastal whaling, possibly even as far back as the Jomon period (10,000–300 BC). Large-scale whaling likely started around the late 17th century; by the middle of the 20th century, Japan—along with its European and American counterparts—was a leading industrial whaling nation. Japan was not an original member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), but joined in 1951 after it returned to whaling at the end of World War II. When the IWC agreed in 1982 to impose a commercial whaling moratorium from 1986/1987, Japan, like Norway, registered a legal objection that exempted it from the decision. Under pressure from the United States, Japan withdrew this objection in 1985 but from 1987 to 2019 it conducted “special permit whaling” which is permitted by the IWC’s founding treaty to allow scientific research but was not intended to be used to facilitate commercial whaling.
AWI and the entire conservation community were heartbroken to learn of the loss of our dear friend and colleague, Joanna Toole, a victim of the Ethiopian Airlines flight that crashed on departure from Addis Ababa in March.
I was in high school when John Gleiber met AWI’s founding president, Christine Stevens, at a dinner party. Christine invited John to her home the next day. It was 1975 and John was offered a job over tea. He became one of an intimate group of employees who worked diligently in the basement of Christine’s home.
On March 7, AWI presented the Schweitzer Medal to John Thompson in recognition of his extraordinary efforts to improve law enforcement’s recognition of animal cruelty as a crime of violence and its response to those crimes
While we humans on the whole have yet to acknowledge our moral obligation to other species and to behave accordingly, there is some evidence that the idea of such a moral obligation is gaining a foothold in our collective conscience.
The Animal Welfare Institute is deeply disappointed that a US District Judge has allowed for the resumption of horse slaughter in the United States for the first time since plants in Illinois and Texas were closed under state law in 2007. While AWI will step up its efforts in Congress for a federal ban on horse slaughter, we hope that the appeals court will reconsider the overwhelming evidence that horse slaughter is harmful to the environment, public welfare, and the welfare of America’s horses, and reinstate the restraining order before any horses are slaughtered.
Citing a pattern of chronic Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations, an administrative law judge on Friday permanently revoked the dealer license of Dan Moulton, owner of Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR), one of the nation’s only dealers supplying chinchillas for experimentation.
In September, the administrative law judge who presided over the November 2019 hearing regarding the Makah tribe’s request for a waiver of the Marine Mammal Protection Act gave his formal recommendation to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
In a potential victory for billions of birds, a federal judge ruled yesterday that a lawsuit filed against the US Department of Agriculture for failing to require humane handling of poultry at slaughter will move forward.
SeaWorld was dealt a blow in late May when Judge Ken S. Welsch of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission upheld an OSHA ruling that stemmed from the death of orca trainer Dawn Brancheau in February 2010. In the prior ruling, OSHA found SeaWorld’s safety protocols inadequate to protect trainers.
The Restore Our American Mustangs (ROAM) Act (H.R. 1018), introduced by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) and National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee Chairman Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), will restore the protections for America’s wild horses and burros that were stripped away in recent years.
A night out on the town could be fun...unless you are a cat lost and alone in the city. Kamie Cat’s Terrible Night is the latest collaboration between AWI and award-winning author and illustrator, Sheila Hamanaka.
The secrecy, brutality, corruption, scientific malfeasance, and greed that drive the Australian kangaroo hunt (see preceding page) are depicted in Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story, an award-winning documentary by filmmakers Kate McIntyre Clere and Mick McIntyre.
Committed to closing the abuse-ridden pipeline that supplies dogs and cats to laboratories, Reps. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and Chris Smith (R-NJ) have reintroduced the Pet Safety and Protection Act (H.R. 2224).
For over a decade, AWI has provided an online database of restaurants in the United States that continue to serve shark fin soup. The goal is to help people avoid such establishments and to call attention to the inherent cruelty associated with shark finning and the devastating effect that commercial demand for fins has on shark populations.
Following passage of the Shark Conservation Act (H.R. 81) in the US House of Representatives earlier this year, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced a Senate companion bill (S.
The live capture of river otters is notoriously difficult, which explains the dearth of information about the ecology of the species. Traditional traps, including leghold and cage traps, can be used to capture otters for research, but they can result in injuries and stress to the animal. In addition, many traps set for otters can capture nontarget species.
In April, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed into law SB 21, now allowing veterinarians to report incidents of animal abuse and mistreatment, including those involving farm animals covered under the state’s on-farm livestock and poultry care st
Rangers reported that a pride of lions came prowling after nightfall, stalking among the brightly burning pyres at the ivory incineration site. Very unusual. Lions normally avoid fire—and this was a spectacularly large fire: 105 tons of ivory, and another 1.35 tons of rhinoceros horn, merging into a conflagration that could easily be seen even from the Ngong Hills.
