Norwegian whalers slaughtered more whales in 2020 than in each of the last three years, according to statistics released today by the Fishermen’s Sales Organization (Råfisklaget). A total of 481 minke whales have been killed so far this year—52 more than last year—and the whaling season is still underway.
As Norway’s fisheries minister, Per Sandberg, travels around New York June 7-8 to promote Norwegian seafood, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) urges the city’s retailers, consumers and restaurateurs to question the source of any Norwegian seafood due to its possible ties to the country’s barbaric whaling industry.
Just days after the Norwegian whaling industry announced that 575 minke whales were slaughtered this season (the most in five years) new documents reveal that whalers are struggling to sell the whale meat—and even offloading it for dog food.
NOAH, Norway’s largest NGO for animals, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and WDC (Whale and Dolphin Conservation) are urging Mattilsynet, the Norwegian Food Safety Authority, to revoke its approval of a potentially cruel and dangerous experiment involving wild minke whales. The research will use captured minke whales off Vestvågøy in the Lofoten area of northern Norway in order to study how the whales’ brains respond to ocean noise.
Norway has hunted whales in its own waters for centuries, but key technological advances, such as the exploding harpoon cannon, developed by its whalers in the 19th century, enabled the expansion of Norwegian whaling—and that of other nations—to an industrial scale over a much broader area. After World War I, in response to dwindling whale stocks and a shortfall of whale oil for its own market, some of Norway’s whalers returned to Norway’s own waters, establishing the foundation of modern Norwegian whaling in the North Atlantic. By the mid-1930s, Norway dominated the global whaling industry, taking more than half of all whales killed and producing a large share of the world’s whale oil.
A recent poll co-funded by AWI and other animal protection and conservation organizations paints a bleak picture for the Norwegian whaling industry’s future. Only 4 percent of Norwegians surveyed said they ate whale meat “often.”
As the Norwegian whaling industry prepares for the start of the 2016 whaling season, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) today released a document that indicates Norwegian fur farms have used minke whale meat to feed animals raised for the country’s fur industry. In 2014, more than 113 metric tons of whale meat (equivalent to the amount of marketable meat from 75 minke whales) was delivered to Rogaland Pelsdyrfôrlaget, the largest manufacturer of animal feed for the Norwegian fur industry.
Whale meat shipped from Norway to Japan contains levels of harmful pesticides—including aldrin, dieldrin and chlordane—that violate human health standards established by the Japanese government, according to tests conducted by the Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
In defiance of a 40-year-old international agreement to protect whales, Norway slaughtered at least 580 whales during the 2022 whaling season—the highest number in six years.
The US Department of Agriculture recently finalized a new waiver system whereby bird slaughter plants can apply to increase their line speed to 175 birds per minute.
The eastern massasauga is a small rattlesnake that was once widespread and common but is now threatened in approximately 75 percent of its range. It is protected in every state or province where it occurs and is listed as threatened under both the US Endangered Species Act and Canada’s federal Species at Risk Act. Efforts to study the population dynamics and survival of eastern massasaugas have historically been difficult due to cryptic coloring, reclusive behavior, and low recapture rates.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exempted all agribusiness in December—no matter how industrialized, no matter the animal product produced—from having to declare noxious emissions produced by animal waste.
On December 10, the New York City Council approved a measure that would make the Big Apple and its obstacle course of vertical structures a bit easier for birds to navigate. Proposed Initiative 1482B, introduced by City Council member Rafael Espinal, requires that at least 90 percent of the exterior of the first 75 feet of all new buildings or major renovations be constructed with glazed glass and other materials more visible to birds.
The White House unveiled a National Strategy to Promote the Health of Honey Bees and Other Pollinators on May 19. The strategy seeks to arrest the catastrophic decline of such pollinators as honey bees and monarch butterflies, by making millions of acres of federal lands more habitable for bees and butterflies, while studying ways to reduce the havoc pesticides wreak on these and other key pollinators.
President Obama has announced the creation of a 23-member federal task force to establish a comprehensive US Ocean Policy that "will incorporate ecosystem-based science and management and emphasize our public stewardship responsibilities."
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is pleased to learn that Obi Sushi restaurant, located in Northern Virginia's Reston Town Center, has retracted their decision to sell shark fin soup and other shark dishes.
Rhode Island is the latest state to ban the use of intensive confinement crates to house calves raised for veal and breeding (or “gestating”) sows, bringing the total number of states banning farm animal confinement crates to nine.
Octopuses inspire awe, wonder, and fascination. They are well-known for their creativity, intelligence, and curiosity. There is ample scientific evidence of their capacity to feel physical pain and experience distress.
