Meet the Neighbors: Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World is an exploration of animal cognition, intelligence, and social systems, challenging the often-arbitrary line that separates humans from animals. Readers are invited into a well-balanced discussion of how we can better understand and coexist with our animal neighbors
Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus, led a bipartisan letter signed by 30 members of Congress to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt criticizing the Bureau of Land Management's proposed surgical sterilization experiments on a herd of wild horses from the Warm Springs Herd Management Area in Oregon.
In a major victory for opponents of animal cruelty, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has agreed to perform a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and immediately suspend its contract with a controversial wildlife killing agency. The agreement settles a lawsuit brought by a coalition of environmental and animal protection groups against Mendocino County.
In response to legal pressure from a coalition of animal protection and conservation groups, Mendocino County officials agreed today to suspend the renewal of the county’s contract with the notorious federal wildlife-killing program known as Wildlife Services, pending an environmental review that will include consideration of nonlethal predator control methods. The county’s decision came after the coalition, and a Mendocino resident, filed a lawsuit against the county in November for violating the California Environmental Quality Act. As a result of that agreement, the coalition has agreed to dismiss its lawsuit.
Campaign to Kick Off with a Benefit "Family & Friends" All Star Concert at Hard Rock Times Square—100% of Ticket Priced Benefit will go to the Animal Welfare Institute and the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance
Disturbing evidence of a potential epidemic has been published in a study by University of Iowa College of Public Health researcher Tara Smith et al this January. The study was the first in the country to document animal-to-human transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an antibiotic-resistant form of a common bacterium that causes deadly infections, though such research has previously been conducted in Canada, Denmark and the Netherlands.
On October 16, AWI and other advocacy groups rallied in front of Amazon’s second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, to deliver more than 370,000 petition signatures urging the company to ban the sale of ejiao, a gelatin made from donkey hides.
Mexico announced this week that it will ease fishing enforcement in the vaquita’s core Upper Gulf of California habitat at a time when only 10 of these tiny porpoises remain on Earth. The move will hasten the extinction of the vaquita, the world’s most endangered cetacean, since they can drown in illegal fishing gillnets.
An article by Gina Kolata in the February 11 New York Times titled “Mice Fall Short as Test Subjects for Some of Humans’ Deadly Ills,” unleashed a maelstrom—from both those advocating alternatives to animals in research as well as those defending animal experimentation.
In light of his recent indictment and guilty plea for charges related to dog fighting, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) calls on National Football League (NFL) quarterback Michael Vick to immediately surrender $22 million of his signing bonus back to the Atlanta Falcons.
Since its (apocryphal) discovery in East Africa by a shepherd who watched his goats joyfully cavort across the pasture shortly after eating the red berries from an unassuming shrub, coffee traditionally has been grown in the shade, under a canopy of trees offering habitat to a variety of avian species.
Since 2000, Congress has acted to improve the treatment of Military Working Dogs (MWDs) by facilitating their adoption at the end of their careers and authorizing the creation of a program of post-retirement veterinary care.
On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act for FY2013 (H.R. 4310), which authorizes the Secretaries of the various military services to transfer back to Lackland Air Force Base, or another location for adoption, any Military Working Dog (MWD)
Colonel Milton M. Kaufmann died on October 29, 2015, aged 97. For the last 40+ years, he had been a dedicated and hard-working volunteer conservationist, locally in his Maryland neighborhood and internationally, most notably in the Caribbean.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office has launched an innovative and provocative radio, television, and billboard campaign to encourage the public to call 911 to report animal abuse. The goal is to expose more instances not only of animal cruelty but also of domestic violence.
US Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) has reintroduced the Mink: Vectors for Infection Risk in the United States Act (Mink VIRUS Act), bipartisan legislation endorsed by the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). This bill is a response to the urgent public health threat posed by mink farms, where mink incubate diseases such as COVID-19 and avian influenza.
The Mink VIRUS Act (H.R. 2185) would phase out US mink farms within one year and establish a grant program to reimburse farmers for the full value of their operations, enabling them to successfully transition away from an increasingly unprofitable business.
Mink on fur farms incubate diseases such as COVID-19 and avian influenza, creating the perfect conditions for new variants to jump to humans—with potentially devastating results.
A growing number of hunters in Minnesota are supporting legislation currently pending in the state that would restrict the use of traps intended to catch and kill furbearing animals.
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) sent letters to two county sheriffs in Minnesota, urging them to investigate and consider filing charges against Butterfield Foods, headquartered in Butterfield, Minnesota, and a Jennie-O Turkey Store facility in Melrose for violating the state’s animal cruelty law.
In late May 2014, Minnesota made history by enacting a law that offers greater hope of adoption for dogs and cats in research. The bill was sponsored by the Beagle Freedom Project and authored by State Senator Scott Dibble.
Actress and activist Miranda Cosgrove late yesterday joined approximately 50 science and business leaders from across the country in Washington, DC to urge members of Congress to defend the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The MMPA has provided vital protections for marine mammals like dolphins, whales and seals for 45 years, but now faces attacks from special interests in Congress.
Mirrors have been studied extensively for mirror image stimulation (MIS) studies addressing the question of self-recognition for primates. Some MIS studies report no evidence of self recognition according to the Gallup marking paradigm (Gallup, 1970), but most do report that the chimpanzees were highly responsive to the mirrors. No quantitative studies have focused on the properties of a mirror and its use as a social enrichment tool.
In September 2015, the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued an interim report on its investigation into the allegations of animal abuse at the US Meat Animal Research Center (MARC) by The New York Times (see AWI Quarterly, spring 2015).
