Press Releases

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has announced a proposed rule to ban the import and export of threatened Banggai cardinalfish, following a 2021 petition from conservation groups.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) endorses the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act, reintroduced today in the US House of Representatives by Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Congressional Animal Protection Caucus Co-Chair Earl...

Conservation groups and the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a historic settlement today to recommit to the conservation and recovery of the world’s only wild red wolf population, which in recent years dropped...

Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) announced the eight recipients of its Christine Stevens Wildlife Award who are developing innovative, less intrusive wildlife study techniques and more humane, nonlethal methods of resolving conflicts between wild...

From documenting how tourist attractions intruded on the habitat of the Grand Cayman blue iguana, to discussing how post-pandemic housing insecurity impacts animals, the winners of the 2023 “A Voice for Animals” contest use creative...

A decade after the documentary “Blackfish” examined the ethics and consequences of keeping orcas in captivity, marine theme parks and aquariums that feature cetaceans are struggling to remain relevant.

President Biden announced yesterday that he will not embargo products from Mexico despite its failure to halt the illegal wildlife trade threatening the critically endangered vaquita porpoise.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) applauds the New York legislature for recently passing a bill to ban wildlife killing contests.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has filed a complaint with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), raising significant issues about Baylor University’s mistreatment of rats in an undergraduate Learning & Behavior Lab course and the...

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) welcomes Iceland’s decision Monday to stop fin whale hunting until August 31, 2023.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and other animal protection organizations applaud today’s reintroduction in the US Senate of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act (S. 2037/H.R. 3475).

Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) petitioned the US Department of Agriculture to change its animal disease regulations to require that producers have in place audited emergency response plans, including strategies to humanely “depopulate” animals...

A bill reintroduced today by US Reps. Jared Huffman (D-CA) and Steve Cohen (D-TN), and US Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) seeks to ban the use of wildlife-killing M-44 devices, commonly known as “cyanide bombs,” on...

The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today that it will soon take steps to improve its label approval program for meat and poultry products to avoid misleading consumers.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) welcomes the reintroduction today of the Animal Welfare Enforcement Improvement Act (AWEIA) by Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Nancy Mace (R-SC).

A controversial US-backed research study that aimed to capture whales in northern Norway and test how they would respond to ocean noise has resulted in the death of a minke whale, the Norwegian Defense Research...

US Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) has introduced legislation to phase out US mink farms within one year and establish a grant program to reimburse farmers for the full value of their operations.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced today that Mexico has failed to halt the illegal wildlife trade threatening the critically endangered vaquita porpoise, diminishing the effectiveness of an international wildlife treaty.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and the American Wild Horse Campaign (AWHC) commend US Reps. Dina Titus (D-NV), David Schweikert (R-AZ), and Steve Cohen (D-TN) for reintroducing today the Wild Horse and Burro Protection Act...

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers has reintroduced the Save America’s Forgotten Equines (SAFE) Act—federal legislation that would permanently protect American horses from commercial slaughter. This legislation would expand the Dog and Cat Meat Prohibition...