In an exciting new development, the North Carolina Natural Hog Growers Association (NCNHGA) and Fudge Family Farms have begun requiring all of their member farms to be accredited by the Animal Welfare Approved program, whose standards for pigs necessitate pasture access and prohibit crates and tail-docking.
Fact: Petting an animal helps to reduce stress. We don’t really need science to tell us this, but there are studies documenting very real physiological and psychological benefits to being around animals.
Zimbabwe faces expulsion from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) unless it quickly gains control of rhino poaching within its borders.
Colorado rancher and livestock hauler Tom Davis spent close to $18,000 to purchase approximately 1,800 horses from the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wild Horse and Burro Program from 2008 to 2012, telling the BLM that the horses would be sold to families as pets. Instead, he sent nearly all of them to Mexico to be slaughtered, making a hefty profit of over $150,000.
Although no action was taken on the Pet Safety and Protection Act in the last Congress, the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill and the FARM bill were adopted; both include language regarding random source Class B dealers who sell dogs and cats for experimentation.
In a response to a 2016 petition by AWI and allies, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) agreed on May 8 to list the Taiwanese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis taiwanensis), also known as the Taiwanese humpback dolphin, as “endanger
Conservation organizations are warning that the Internet is driving unprecedented levels of illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife parts—$7.8 to $10 billion annually, according to the research group, Global Financial Integrity.
A technique that is increasingly used worldwide to improve the welfare of rats in research is rat “tickling”—whereby humans make light, brisk, and vigorous movements with their fingertips on a rat’s neck and abdomen to imitate juvenile rat rough-a
The US is the only country in the world that does not include within its animal welfare laws and regulations the rats, mice and birds who are subjected to research and testing. The federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) was amended in 1970 to include all warm-blooded animals who are commonly experimented upon. However, the term "animals," for purposes of the protections delineated in the statute, is defined so as to expressly exclude rats, mice and birds - the very animals who constitute roughly 95% of animals in research!
Anticoagulant rat poisons - the number one method of rodent control used worldwide - may take a week or more to kill rodents. During this interim, the rodents continue to move around, leaving predatory wildlife species at risk of consuming poisoned prey.
Alarm bells are ringing for the fate of all manta and mobula ray species because of increased demand for their fins and gill rakers—the apparatus by which they filter their food.
On June 22, 2016, Georgia Aquarium announced that it will no longer acquire any cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) for its exhibits from the wild. Along with this announcement, Georgia Aquarium released a media kit, entitled Beluga Import Project.
AWI would like to congratulate the 2014 Christine Stevens Wildlife Award recipients:
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey - the “Greatest Show on Earth” according to its slogan - has a new distinction that probably won’t appear in its promotional materials: The circus company has been slapped with the largest fine ever under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) against an exhibitor.
You may have never thought twice about a horseshoe crab—or even once for that matter—but lately, people are noticing that perhaps they should.
As spring brought budding trees and new shoots to Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in North Carolina, it also brought renewed hope for the survival of the red wolf, the most critically endangered canid in the world.
Since a victory by AWI and allies in a lawsuit to limit coyote hunting in the red wolf recovery area (see AWI Quarterly, summer 2014), the US Fish and Wildlife Service has continued to sabotage its own once-successful red wolf recovery program, in apparent capitulation to a small, but very vocal group of individuals opposed to red wolf recovery.
Red Wolf Revival made its debut in Washington, DC, on February 22 at the Carnegie Institution for Science, followed by a panel of speakers that included filmmaker Roshan Patel and representatives from AWI, Defenders of Wildlife, and the Wildlands Network.