Perdue Farms has become the first major poultry producer in the United States to commit to adopting a process of stunning with gas, known as controlled atmosphere stunning (CAS), at all of its chicken slaughter plants.
That amphibians are the most imperiled class of vertebrates in the world is largely beyond debate. Such threats as habitat loss and overexploitation for meat or the pet trade are decimating amphibian species worldwide.
Bethany Brookshire begins her engrossing book, Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains, with an eastern gray squirrel named “[expletive] Kevin” who is decimating her tomato plant.
It is an illuminating anecdote, since Brookshire—an award-winning science writer and host of the podcast Science for the People—fully acknowledges that whether an animal is considered cherished wildlife, pet, or pest is all about perspective (i.e., how much of an inconvenient irritant they are). Squirrels scampering in the forest are a delight, while the squirrel christened Kevin, who is using her garden patch as a smorgasbord, must be eradicated.
Recent events have moved domestic violence out of the shadows and into public consciousness where it can be addressed as the serious crime that it is. But still hidden from view is an all-too-real obstacle many survivors face when trying to leave their abusive partners: the fear that those partners will harm or kill their companion animals.
Any member of a household can become a victim of domestic violence: spouses or partners, children, elderly relatives, even companion animals. In fact, fear of what might happen to their pets keeps many human victims from leaving. The PAWS Act will help bridge the gap between the tremendous need for services for domestic violence survivors with pets and the ability of agencies to meet those needs.
In an effort to stop experimentation on illegally acquired dogs and cats, Senator Daniel Akaka (D-AK) and Representative Mike Doyle (D-PA) are again sponsoring the Pet Safety and Protection Act.
The global trade in ornamental fish is a multibillion-dollar business involving the annual global export of around 2 billion fish from 2,500 freshwater and marine species.
The Animal Welfare Institute works to secure protections for animals in agriculture by engaging with federal administrative agencies through petitions for rulemaking and complaints made pursuant to federal regulations.
AWI and allies submitted a petition for rulemaking to the US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in November urging the agency to adopt regulations governing its Wildlife Services program to improve the welfare o
The Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and Project Coyote petitioned the Obama administration today to reform the federal wildlife-killing program known as “Wildlife Services,” which kills nearly 1.5 million coyotes, bears, otters, foxes, birds and other animals each year without any requirement to disclose its activities to the public. The secretive killing—which includes aerial gunning, traps and exploding poison caps—has gone on for decades with little public oversight or rules requiring the use of the best available science or techniques to reduce the deaths of nontarget animals.
Today, the Animal Welfare Institute and other conservation groups petitioned the National Marine Fisheries Service to list the Atlantic humpback dolphin under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA). Atlantic humpback dolphin populations are in serious decline, and the species is already recognized as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
In December, AWI and its allies petitioned the Obama administration to reform USDA's Wildlife Services program, which kills nearly 1.5 million animals each year without regard for sound science or animal welfare.
The African elephants have lost a grand and valiant champion. Pierre Pfeffer, director of research at both the National Museum of Natural History in Paris and France’s National Center for Scientific Research, passed away on December 29 at the age of 89.
Looking to take advantage of the disaster unfolding in China, US meat production giants Tyson Foods and JBS USA have announced they are ending the use of ractopamine throughout their supply chains.
The Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum (LAREF) is an online platform, hosted by AWI, where individuals working with animals in research share ideas and experiences related to improving the welfare of animals under their
Pig Tales, James Beard Award–winner Barry Estabrook’s investigation into the commercial pork industry, travels over ground familiar to many farm animal welfare advocates. Illustrating that “factory raised meat may be cheap, but those inexpensive chops come at a cost,” Estabrook chronicles the negative impacts of intensive animal raising on farmer and worker health, on communities, and on the animals themselves.
Painted dogs (Lycaon pictus), also called African wild dogs, once numbered around 500,000 across 39 countries on the continent. Today, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a little over 1 percent of that population hangs on, and the painted dog ranks among Africa’s most endangered species.
A group of rural North Carolinians prevailed in court this April against Murphy-Brown LLC, a subsidiary of Chinese-owned global food giant Smithfield Foods.
Conservationists and wildlife trade experts from nongovernmental organizations across the globe are calling for a halt to Namibia’s controversial capture and export of wild elephant family groups, including a unique, desert-adapted elephant population that is already threatened by years of drought, habitat loss, and trophy hunting.
Mounting scientific evidence indicates that environmental enrichment improves the welfare of laboratory mice, but most facilities worldwide still use standard housing (i.e., mostly barren “shoebox” cages). The provision of regular access to enriched environments such as playpens, even when mice are otherwise housed in standard cages, could provide an immediate method to improve welfare.
Every year, both animals and members of the public are injured or killed because animal exhibitors allow visitors to pet and pose with lions, bears, tigers, primates, and other animals.
In Poached: Inside the Dark World of Wildlife Trafficking, Rachel Love Nuwer crafts an important update to an old story of wildlife exploitation. The book is written in a flowing journalistic style, with each chapter a free-standing essay about a particular aspect of wildlife trafficking.
