Conservation groups sued the Trump administration today to force a long overdue decision to sanction Mexico for its illegal fishing and trade that is causing the vaquita porpoise’s extinction.
The Animal Welfare Institute and Wildlife Preserves, Inc. filed a lawsuit today against K. Christopher Soller, superintendent of Fire Island National Seashore (FINS), and the National Park Service (NPS). The complaint alleges that, by implementing a wildlife management plan that authorizes the killing of white-tailed deer on FINS, Soller and the NPS have broken federal law and violated property rights.
Conservation groups filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration today for failing to respond to their emergency request to ban certain seafood imports from Mexico’s Gulf of California in order to save the critically endangered vaquita porpoise from extinction.
The Animal Welfare Institute, the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) are calling on the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to end its practice of relicensing chronic violators of the minimum care standards set forth in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
Compass Group, Sodexo, and Aramark, three of the largest food service companies, announced a commitment to purchase liquid eggs from cage-free hens for US sales.
Macaques are biologically adapted to an arboreal or semi-arboreal life style. They spend much or most of the day and all of the night in elevated locations well off the ground as a safeguard against predators including humans. When they are on the ground during an alarming situation, they will inevitably flee upward on trees, roofs and other elevated, safe places (Lindburg, 1971; Roonwal & Mohnot, 1977; Chopra, Seth, & Seth, 1992).
Conservation groups filed a legal notice today pressing the US government to ban seafood caught from Mexico’s Upper Gulf of California in an effort to save the last remaining vaquita porpoises.
Today, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Center for Biological Diversity, Project Coyote, the Animal Welfare Institute, and WildEarth Guardians submitted a petition for rulemaking to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) urging the agency to adopt a comprehensive regulatory framework to govern its Wildlife Services program.
Animals in the laboratory need the legally required "empty space" to meet their basic spatial requirements for postural adjustment, but they also deserve functional structured space for species-typical locomotor behavior and dynamic interaction with their physical environment.
Today, 64 members of Congress sent a bipartisan letter to US Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and US Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen objecting to the Forest Service’s impending plan to sell federally protected wild horses without restrictions on slaughter.
US Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) has introduced legislation to phase out US mink farms within one year and establish a grant program to reimburse farmers for the full value of their operations.
Although the coronavirus pandemic kept Congress more or less shuttered this spring, AWI nonetheless worked with legislators to get strong animal welfare positions on record.
In May, Florida became the first US state to ban the sale and manufacture for sale of “cell-cultivated” meat (aka “lab-grown” meat; see AWI Quarterly, fall 2023).
Shark finning is the inhumane practice of cutting off a shark’s fins, often while the shark is still alive, and discarding the body into the ocean. The fins are used in soup and other dishes. Growing concerns for shark populations ultimately led legislators in the United States to enact laws to restrict the practice of finning, as well as the possession of shark fins.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) welcomes the reintroduction of the Horse Transportation Safety Act of 2014, by Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Ed Whitfield (R-KY). The bill, which prohibits the hauling of horses on livestock trailers containing one level on top of the other, has garnered strong support from the welfare, equine, veterinary and agriculture communities.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) endorses today’s reintroduction in Congress of the Captive Primate Safety Act (CPSA), which would end the cruel and dangerous pet primate trade in the United States.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) applauds Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Jared Huffman (D-CA), and Suzan DelBene (D-WA) for introducing the Strengthening Welfare in Marine Settings (SWIMS) Act today.
Twenty-nine state legislators, including 17 representing North Carolina, submitted a joint statement yesterday condemning a US Fish and Wildlife Service proposal that would decimate the population of red wolves in a designated recovery area of North Carolina. Currently, fewer than 30 red wolves remain in the wild.
