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.
The Northwest Atlantic subpopulation of leatherback turtles could soon lose important protections under the Endangered Species Act in response to a September 2017 petition filed by the Blue Water Fishermen’s Association.
AWI now has free lesson plans available for two of our most sought-after books, A Dangerous Life and The Magic of Touch. The lesson plans were developed by AWI in cooperation with educator Nancy Kellum Brown.
A common feature of captive environments is that they deprive individuals of agency—that is, they constrain individuals’ ability to make decisions and exercise control over their environment.
The idea that animal play is important and worthwhile is gaining traction within the biomedical research community. Indeed, the PRIM&R’s 2019 IACUC Conference (the acronyms stand for “Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research” and “Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee”)—an annual gathering that brings together approximately 600 professionals from state and federal government, industry, and academia—included for the first time this year a session on the importance of play for animals in research.
In addition to the AWI Quarterly and annual report, AWI publishes books, reports, and brochures on a variety of animal welfare issues. Most of our materials are provided free to those who can put them directly to use helping animals, and at cost for all others.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), and the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress hosted a ceremony this afternoon at the Library’s famed Thomas Jefferson Building to introduce A Dangerous Life, a new graphic novel addressing the global ivory trade and the slaughter of African elephants.
