The Animal Welfare Institute joins The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and four other organizations today in filing a Petition for Rulemaking with the US Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to put a stop to the unnecessary exploitation of dolphins in amusement parks by prohibiting dolphin attractions known as "petting pools," where members of the public can touch and feed dolphins for a nominal fee.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the Animal Protection League of New Jersey (APLNJ) today provided video footage to all members of the New Jersey Legislature demonstrating the barbarity of enclosed leghold traps. In contravention of New Jersey’s ban on steel-jaw leghold traps, the New Jersey Fish and Game Council (Council) allowed the traps’ use on raccoons and opossums in the Garden State during last year’s trapping season and seeks to do so again when the trapping season begins in November.
Animal protection groups sued Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and the Department of Agriculture today for failing to protect pigs who are too sick or injured to walk at slaughterhouses, posing serious risks to animals and food safety.
As celebrations begin for "A Taste of Iceland" in the nation’s capital this week, Animal Welfare Institute, Humane Society International and The Humane Society of the United States do not celebrate the fact that Iceland continues to kill whales for commercial purposes in spite of an international ban on commercial whaling.
The fiscal year 2020 appropriations bills finalized in December included a number of victories for animals: On the marine side, $3 million was allocated for research and monitoring of the gravely imperiled North Atlantic right whale, and funding w
Congress has made little progress on finalizing fiscal year 2022 spending bills—an unfortunate circumstance given that many of them include important provisions that would benefit animals.
A briefing for Members of Congress and their staff on the need to pass the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act (PAMTA), hosted by the Animal Welfare Institute, the ASPCA, and The Humane Society of the United States. A veterinarian and farmers will discuss the negative impacts of the misuse of antibiotics on animals and the need for action.
A recent retraction of a paper describing a study involving squirrel monkeys at the now-closed New England National Primate Research Center (NENPRC) shows once again that poor animal welfare leads to poor science.
Every year, more than 10,000 animals are shot, stabbed, mutilated, and killed in military training exercises that purportedly prepare soldiers for treating trauma on the battlefield. Although more advanced military training facilities have replaced animal victims with human-like simulators that “breathe,” “bleed” and “die” in a manner that more accurately mimics human trauma, horrific procedures are still used at 17 military training bases and four private contract facilities across the country.
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was the first federal law in the United States regulating the use of animals in research. In addition to research laboratories, the AWA now also applies to animal carriers, handlers, dealers, breeders, and exhibitors. The law establishes minimum standards of care that must be provided for animals with respect to, among other things, housing, handling, sanitation, food, water, veterinary care, and protection from weather extremes. Over the years, the AWA has been amended numerous times. It covers warm-blooded species but (as amended) expressly excludes birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus, bred for use in research.
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute, Big Cat Rescue, Born Free USA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society Legislative Fund and Performing Animal Welfare Society celebrate the reintroduction of the Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA) in the US House of Representatives.
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) today criticized guidelines proposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) that permit the use of inhumane killing methods, including the use of water-based foam, ventilation shutdown, and live burial, for farm animals.
The Animal Welfare Institute, Big Cat Rescue, Born Free USA, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund are celebrating the introduction of the Big Cat Public Safety Act (BCPSA) in the US Senate. Championed by Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, the bill would ensure that unqualified individuals, including chronic animal abusers, are prohibited from obtaining and keeping dangerous big cats like tigers, lions, leopards and pumas.
Federal lawmakers introduced legislation today to permanently ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption in the US and end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad. Introduced by Reps. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL.) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL), the Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act (H.R. 961) is supported by leading animal welfare groups, including the Animal Welfare Institute, the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), The Humane Society of the United States, The Humane Society Legislative Fund, and Return to Freedom Wild Horse Conservation.
The ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), and The Humane Society Legislative Fund (HSLF) applaud the naming of Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.), who is joining Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.), as the new co-chair of the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus (CAPC) for the 113th Congress. The CAPC is a bipartisan caucus committed to raising awareness of animal welfare issues in Congress. The four national animal welfare groups hosted a welcome reception for Rep. Campbell and the returning members of the CAPC on Capitol Hill on Feb. 5.
AWI, along with several other animal advocacy groups, filed a rulemaking petition with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act to prevent the slaughter of non-ambulatory disabled (a.k.a. downer) pigs.
Federal lawmakers reintroduced legislation today to permanently ban horse slaughter in the United States and end the current export of American horses for slaughter abroad.
A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers has reintroduced the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act—federal legislation that would permanently protect American horses from commercial slaughter. This legislation would expand the Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition Act—which passed as part of the 2018 Farm Bill—to include equines, and prohibit the commercial slaughter of horses in the United States and end their export for that purpose abroad.
The US House of Representatives yesterday passed the Carter-Fitzpatrick Amendment to the INVEST in America Act, which would ban the slaughter of American equines.
Today, a bipartisan group of federal lawmakers reintroduced legislation to permanently ban horse slaughter in the United States and end the current export of American horses for slaughter.
