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.
The unsustainability and cruelty involved in octopus farming prompted Sens.
On a positive note, one effort to use a critical (and completely unrelated) piece of legislation to erode the ESA failed decisively.
In 2017, France’s minister of ecology issued a decree phasing out the captive display of cetaceans through a breeding and trade ban.
AWI has joined the “Stop Puppy Mills Ohio” coalition of animal welfare groups, rescues, shelters, and Ohio citizens to launch a ballot initiative aimed at clamping down on puppy mills in the state.
There is another addition to the growing body of case law acknowledging that companion animals are not mere property.
In the last eight years, the number of puppy mills in Ohio has increased fourfold—a consequence of the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) relaxing its regulation of these entities.
For years, the animal protection community, including AWI, has maintained that the tank for Lolita, the lone orca who has languished for over 45 years at the Miami Seaquarium, does not meet the minimum space requirements for her species under US l
The US Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently published an audit report relevant to AWI’s efforts to improve the accuracy of meat label claims.
AWI is gravely disappointed in the outcome of the review of the federal Wildlife Services program by the USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG). The OIG took up the investigation after members of Congress requested it—but promptly punted on any in-depth analysis.
In another indictment of the US Department of Agriculture’s lax enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), a new report from the department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) criticizes the USDA Animal Care (AC) program’s reporting system and,
The USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) has released an audit of inspection and enforcement activities at pig slaughter plants. The May 2013 audit found that inspectors for the Food Safety and Inspection Services (FSIS) do not always enforce humane handling regulations properly.
The Trump administration’s plans to expand offshore oil and gas exploration along the Eastern Seaboard spells trouble for the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale, of which only 450 or so remain.
The Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in the evening hours of April 20.
Twenty years ago, the single-hulled Exxon Valdez tanker collided with the Bligh Reef in Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude oil into the pristine and ecologically significant Prince William Sound. The massive spill—caused by human error and lack of oversight—ruined one of America's most treasured natural areas and caused the deaths of millions of animals, including more than 3,000 sea otters, 300 harbor seals, 250,000 murres, 14 orcas, and countless fish and benthic invertebrates. Some species are still unrecovered today, and the environment remains blanketed in oil.
An underwater pipeline ruptured about five miles off California’s southern coast in early October, spewing at least 25,000 gallons of oil into the sea.
In summer 2018, 101 whales—90 belugas and 11 orcas—were captured in a single operation in the Okhotsk Sea and held in a sea pen complex near Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.
Institutions that receive Public Health Service (PHS) funding and conduct research using live vertebrate animals are required by law to have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) that oversees the treatment of those animals and en
For caribou herds to persist, they must maintain access to productive calving grounds (areas that herds visit annually to give birth to their young).
The food industry impacts almost every sector of society. When food is produced irresponsibly, it can negatively impact workers, animals, and the environment. Animals are intensively confined by the billions, natural resources are polluted and expunged to feed the animals and ourselves, and workers throughout the food supply chain are exploited for paltry wages.