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).
The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that a state law prohibiting counties from imposing regulations on industrial hog operations does not violate the Missouri Constitution.
A Missouri law defining meat as “derived from harvested production livestock or poultry” went into effect this fall. The law also creates fines and even jail time for producers who violate the act.
East Vail Pass on Interstate 70, between Copper Mountain Resort and the top of Vail Pass, is an important movement corridor for wildlife in Colorado. Most recently, the Summit County Safe Passages Connectivity Plan for Wildlife, initiated by the US Forest Service, identified East Vail Pass as a top priority area in which to focus human-wildlife conflict mitigation efforts in the near term. The plan, completed in 2017, was developed by a diverse group of stakeholders and provides a common vision for multispecies landscape connectivity throughout Summit County, Colorado.
The Animal Welfare Institute, Project Coyote and the Center for Biological Diversity are seeking an immediate investigation of Modoc County Sheriff Mike Poindexter for his decision to defy federal laws and advocate the violation of those laws during this weekend’s Coyote Drive 13, a coyote-killing contest in and near Modoc County.
Shortly before the M. Wells Dinette opened at the Museum of Modern Art’s PS1 gallery (MoMA PS1) in Long Island City, New York, in late September, the restaurant’s chefs announced that the menu would include horse tartare—or, in less glamorous terms, raw horse meat—in addition to a number of dishes prepared with foie gras, or fattened goose liver.
As many wildlife populations decline, the ability to monitor population sizes and changes is critical to conservation efforts. To determine population trends, researchers often must capture animals and apply unique bands or tags that can be used to identify individuals in the future.
Enrichment is pivotal to captive animal welfare. Social enrichment is particularly important for any social animals who, due to practical constraints, are not housed in larger groups. Pair housing is the most common social housing type for macaques in laboratories across North America. This does allow for some degree of socialization, but falls well short of what their wild counterparts experience within typical groups of 30–80 monkeys. The goal of our project, which was funded by an AWI Refinement Grant, was to see if laboratory caregivers could act as an additional source of social enrichment to pair-housed macaques in research.
The legal and illegal trade in monkeys is staggering. An Internet search using the phrase, “baby monkey for sale,” reveals thousands of ads for virtually every known primate species. For just a few hundred dollars, almost anyone can purchase a monkey.
On 1 September, Monkey World-Ape Rescue Centre was given the 1998 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) Zoo Animal Welfare Award for the Woolly Monkey Habitat. We were honoured to have the award presented by Dr Jane Goodall, CBE, and Dr James Kirkwood, Scientific Director, UFAW. At present, we have six (2.4) woolly monkeys (Lagothrix lagotricha): (See Table 1.)
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) has introduced bills to remedy two different animal welfare problems. The first, H.R. 4148, the Humane Cosmetics Act, prohibits testing cosmetics on animals and also the sale of any cosmetics or ingredients that have been tested on animals. Animal-based tests used for these products are not only inhumane but also scientifically unreliable for predicting the effect of a product on humans.
War and pestilence ride together and there is no better place than an army camp full of recruits, stressed and far from home, for an epidemic to begin.
Despite its own large fishing industry, the United States is one of the world’s top seafood importing countries, and imports of Icelandic seafood products have been on the rise. By 2014, nearly 32 percent of haddock and 8 percent of cod produced by Iceland was being exported to the United States. Unfortunately, some of the companies sending that seafood have corporate ties to Icelandic whalers.
More than 1.5 million farmed animals perished in barn fires in 2024, accounting for 60% of the deaths reported in the last three years, according to an Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) report released today.
Today, more than 200 veterinarians sent a letter to the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce and US Senate Committee on the Judiciary expressing support for the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act (H.R. 3355/S. 2732)—federal legislation to permanently prohibit the slaughter of American horses for human consumption.
More than 681,000 farm animals perished in potentially preventable barn fires in 2021, according to an Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) analysis of media reports released today.
In an ill-conceived attempt to save endangered salmon, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) on Friday issued a permit for wildlife managers and local tribes to kill as many as 540 California sea lions and 176 Steller sea lions in the Columbia River basin over the next five years.
