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“Concerning oceans, there is reason to suggest that the outcomes could be characterized as Rio+20 minus 40.” That was the assessment of National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle as she reported on the decided lack of progress from the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, the second decadal follow-up to the 1992 Earth Summit.

Date created: August 2, 2012
Last updated: January 16, 2020

Amazingly, the ambient temperature around a buried green sea turtle egg influences the turtle’s gender. The warmer it gets, the more likely the baby will be female.

Date created: April 8, 2019
Last updated: April 8, 2019

People have long admired cranes for their tall and stately posture, their monogamous pair bonds involving ritual courtship dances and territorial unison calls, and their majestic flight. In some cultures, cranes symbolize peace and freedom.

Date created: February 7, 2011
Last updated: January 10, 2020

UC Davis researcher Fraser Shilling and colleagues created a website for Californians to report on roadkill. The goal is to collect data that could help transportation planners and conservation managers design more wildlife-friendly roads.

Date created: November 8, 2010
Last updated: December 6, 2019

On November 7, 2010, two weeks after his 91st birthday, long-time AWI colleague and whale advocate Robbins Wolcott Barstow, Jr. died at his home in Wethersfield, Connecticut.

Date created: February 7, 2011
Last updated: April 24, 2024

It came as a terrible shock. A tremor ran through me and my insides felt empty and sad when I was told that Bob Anderson had died. Wildlife has lost one of its most competent and devoted defenders. Human society has lost one of its most decent and considerate persons. I have lost a friend whom I admired enormously.

Date created: July 6, 2016
Last updated: April 24, 2024

Camilla Bengtsson and Marie Eriksson, researchers at the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, have recently gained some international acclaim for their unique approach to handling and training laboratory mice and rats to reduce stress, anxiety, and

Date created: August 19, 2021
Last updated: August 30, 2021

The national meeting of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science (AALAS) in San Diego featured a description of the many ways to modify existing caging and employ social introduction methods for nonhuman primates.

Date created: December 6, 2011
Last updated: January 8, 2020
Roots of Human Behavior is a vibrant photo documentation of the parallels between animal and human expressions, emotions and psychology. It is another book in a series of AWI publications whose purpose is to improve the treatment of captive animals.
Date created: August 11, 2009
Last updated: January 17, 2020

In March, Iowa enacted a law that will require most egg retailers in the state to continue carrying “conventional” eggs from hens raised in densely packed battery cages.

Date created: June 29, 2018
Last updated: April 24, 2024
In a great victory for animal welfare, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) succeeded in including language in the manager’s amendment of the House Appropriations Committee’s Fiscal Year 2016 Agriculture Bill to deny funds for the licensing or relicensing of Class B animal dealers who sell “random source” dogs and cats for use in research. The bill passed the full House Appropriations Committee earlier yesterday, July 8, 2015.
Date created: July 9, 2015
Last updated: February 2, 2022

President Obama denied a permit in January for the Keystone XL pipeline’s proposed route over the border from Canada, across the critically important Ogallala Aquifer, on down to the Gulf of Mexico. At an Oklahoma photo-op in March, however, the president expressed support for expedited construction of a southern pipeline leg below the aquifer.

Date created: May 7, 2012
Last updated: January 16, 2020

In 2012, the animal protection community was shocked to learn that an orca (later named Narnia) had been captured in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia.

Date created: June 26, 2017
Last updated: June 26, 2017

After a two-year break, Russia has once again issued permits to capture free-ranging orcas and belugas in the Sea of Okhotsk for display in entertainment parks.

Date created: December 17, 2018
Last updated: December 17, 2018

As used here, "safe havens" refers to the sheltering services available in an area that assist victims of domestic violence with placing their companion animals out of harm's way so that they may seek safety for themselves

Date created: June 27, 2011
Last updated: January 18, 2024

AWI’s Safe Havens for Pets Mapping Project aims to provide an accurate listing of the nation’s available safe havens for pets—i.e., sheltering services that assist individuals experiencing domestic violence in placing their companion animals out o

Date created: June 14, 2022
Last updated: June 24, 2022

At times it may seem difficult to locate the "win/win" in a situation. Not so when it comes to recognizing the link between animal abuse and domestic violence - and using it to combat both.

Date created: May 4, 2011
Last updated: January 8, 2020
In honor of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) released new research today that ranks states according to the number of safe havens available per capita.
Date created: October 7, 2021
Last updated: January 18, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) commends lawmakers from the US House of Representatives for including the Horse Transportation Safety Act (HTSA) in transportation legislation unveiled last week.
Date created: June 8, 2020
Last updated: January 18, 2024
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) commends members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee for passing the Horse Transportation Safety Act (HTSA) today as part of surface transportation legislation. The HTSA would ban the use of unsafe double-deck trailers to haul horses in interstate commerce.
Date created: June 10, 2021
Last updated: January 18, 2024
There is increasing concern that the conventional single-housing arrangement of laboratory macaques (cf. Bayne, 1989) is unsatisfactory both for ethical and scientific reasons (Segal, 1989; USDA, 1991; CCAC, 1993; IPS, 1993). Biomedical professionals, however, may contend that transferring adult macaques from social isolation to a social-housing arrangement is unethical because of the risk of fighting associated with partner intolerance. A simple technique has recently been described that allows pair formation of previously single-caged adult male rhesus macaques without undue risk.
Date created: January 21, 2009
Last updated: June 5, 2020

A free virtual workshop: Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 10am – 4pm

(5.75 CE for Ohio social workers, counselors, and therapists provided)

Date created: July 29, 2021
Last updated: July 29, 2021

San Diego is now the second-largest city in the United States (behind Los Angeles) to ban the retail sale of dogs, cats and rabbits originating from puppy mills and other commercial breeding facilities. 

Date created: December 10, 2013
Last updated: January 15, 2020

Sometimes, politics play a greater role than the merits of the issue when deciding whether legislation gets a fair hearing. In the case of AB 2140, the Orca Welfare and Safety Act introduced in the California legislature in February 2014 by Assemblymember Richard Bloom, politics is most definitely a factor.

Date created: March 6, 2015
Last updated: January 9, 2020

Three years ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would no longer support experimentation on chimpanzees.

Date created: December 21, 2018
Last updated: December 21, 2018