Quarterly

In this issue, a look at the future of “organ chips” and other emerging laboratory research and testing technologies that avoid the use of animals while often producing more human-relevant results.

AWI’s Safe Havens for Pets directory expands to include shelter services for unhoused people with pets. An AWI report addresses the USDA’s chronic failure to curb cruelty at slaughterhouses. Colorado cracks down on wildlife trafficking, while in our nation’s capital, the outlook for animals is increasingly dire, as the Trump administration dismantles federal conservation and animal research programs, eviscerates long-standing environmental laws, and throws open vital habitat to extractive industries. Internationally, AWI celebrates an animal welfare champion, and commercial whalers encounter a collapsing market.

Learn about the current unprecedented political attacks on bedrock animal protection and conservation laws and what animal activists can do to help. AWI and allies achieve a major legal victory to help reduce marine mammal deaths in commercial fishing gear. AWI pushes for more humane, effective ways to address bird flu in industrial egg and poultry operations. A look at the profound effects a surging demand for monkeys has had on the animal research landscape. AWI children’s books boost humane education efforts in Puerto Rico.

AWI reports from the 69th meeting of the International Whaling Commission. The outlook for animal welfare and the environment during a second Trump administration. Helping Mountain West communities become “Bear Smart.” USDA fails to clear confusion on animal welfare label claims. Horse advocates gather in DC and talk some horse sense into Congress.

AWI reports from the CITES Animals Committee meeting in Geneva and its implications for wildlife protections in international trade. We press the USDA to help state officials clamp down on animal abuse in US slaughter plants. A new AWI initiative helps researchers and policymakers access valuable FBI data to study and address animal cruelty crimes. Supporting efforts to establish marine mammal protection areas in the Atlantic. Helping animal caregivers provide better lives to rodents and rabbits in research.

We examine the scope and efficacy of state-level farmed animal protection laws, and we award the Schweitzer Medal to Dr. Temple Grandin for her pioneering work to promote more humane treatment of farmed animals. AWI and partners press the US government to implement long-overdue regulations aimed at reducing the death of marine mammals as bycatch in global fishing gear. Exposing the trade in exotic animal skins as a horror—rather than a fashion—show. AWI members help sanctuaries give new life to animals retired from research.

AWI helps secure protections for Caribbean wildlife, reports on conditions for captive orcas in China, and pushes for US standards to prevent grueling long-distance transport of newborn calves and others unfit to travel. In a Colorado corral, tragic consequences of the BLM’s wild horse management failures. National Primate Research Centers seek to expand while ignoring chronic welfare issues. And a global campaign to end the brutal annual cull of Australia’s kangaroos gains steam.

This edition of the Quarterly, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, features stories that explain the ESA’s inner workings and illustrate this landmark law’s continuing importance—including an account of how the ESA supported a successful legal challenge by AWI and allies to induce the USFWS to recommit to red wolf recovery. In this issue, we also address the woeful absence of protections for mice in research, highlight our campaign to promote better conditions for egg-laying hens, raise a glass to retiring staff member Dr. Mary Lou Randour, and more.

Progress in our efforts to bolster federal protections for racehorses and walking horses. Fighting the use of horrific methods to “depopulate” chicken flocks exposed to bird flu. A new edition of AWI’s comprehensive analysis of the ills inherent in marine mammal captivity. How financial incentives are fueling an illegal trade in wild primates for research. Celebrating the ongoing work by one of our own and the legacy of a departed hero on behalf of the world’s whales.

AWI is helping rangers in Africa take to the wing to ground poachers. We’re celebrating a new international agreement to protect ocean biodiversity. We’re seeking to end the unseen suffering of pigs in slaughterhouses and the needless killing of rats used in a university classroom. AWI thanks our supporters and invites readers to answer a quick survey that offers a chance to provide feedback on our programs and tell us which animal welfare issues mean the most to you!

A retrospective on the Christine Stevens Wildlife Awards—advancing win-win solutions for wildlife and people. Animal care staff recount personal triumphs in the ongoing effort to provide better lives for animals in research. AWI seeks significant reforms to USDA oversight of animal slaughter. More scrutiny over potential wildlife trafficking in Cambodia-to-US primate pipeline. Birds in pet trade and exhibits gain long-overdue Animal Welfare Act protections. AWI fondly remembers three marine life champions.

Congress Passes the Big Cat Public Safety Act! AWI offers on-the ground accounts of how animal protection efforts fared at two major international conferences: the International Whaling Commission meeting in Slovenia and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting in Panama. Even as CITES was preparing to meet, a shocking federal indictment was announced over an alleged conspiracy to smuggle endangered monkeys from the wild into the United States for research.

In this issue, AWI previews CoP19, a critical November gathering of nations and animal advocates in Panama to weigh protections for hippos, horned lizards, and a host of other wild species under threat from international trade. Horrifying conditions lead to closure of a dog-breeding facility in Virginia owned by one of the world’s largest research suppliers. The USDA fails to prevent deceptive animal-raising claims on food packaging. On Capitol Hill, the Big Cat Public Safety Act passes the House, and other animal welfare legislation gains ground.

AWI examines the state of industrial farming in the United States amid efforts by some US states to improve living conditions for animals in agriculture. Atrocities at a beagle breeding facility in Virginia prompt court intervention. An ambitious project aims to suppress Hawaii’s invasive mosquito population and improve the outlook for the Islands’ endangered birds. Celebrating success and looking to the future as the Marine Mammal Protection Act turns 50. And a note of thanks to all our members for your vital support.

Amid the terrible humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, many Ukrainian animals are suffering the devastation of war as well. Learn what AWI is doing to help, and how you can help too. Also in this issue: Namibia’s controversial sale of wild-caught elephants to a foreign zoo. Gray wolves regain some Endangered Species Act protections, while grizzly bears face continued efforts to remove protections. Hawaii becomes the first US state to ban shark fishing. And a tribute to the late Senator Bob Dole, one of Capitol Hill’s true animal welfare champions.

Two horrendous animal dealers have their licenses revoked. AWI takes a hard look, however, at the USDA’s failure to act with resolve and urgency to rescue animals at such facilities, as well as to prevent suffering of horses in the hands of unscrupulous trainers and of poultry outside slaughterhouses—where too often they are abandoned for days in transport trailers without food or water and subjected to extreme temperatures.

Cruelty goes unchecked as “custom-exempt” slaughterhouses evade inspection. A notorious chinchilla dealer lands in court over allegations of abuse. Animals around the world grapple with habitats transformed by climate change. Wild denizens of ANWR get welcome reprieve from oil and gas drilling. AWI aids efforts to cultivate peaceful coexistence with beavers. A Mississippi River sediment diversion plan endangers dolphins. Teen participants in A Voice for Animals contest speak—and act—for a better world.

A campaign to end wildlife killing contests gains ground. AWI welcomes Scientific Committee members dedicated to advancing animal welfare, while an ill-conceived ocean noise study in Norway threatens to do more harm than good. A far different study shows mice in research react positively to playtime. The myth of benign dog-proof traps is exposed. AWI gets USDA to open up access to humane slaughter enforcement records. Animal welfare bills in Congress need the support of your legislators.

A call to end mink farming—a cruel, outdated industry that is also an incubator for COVID-19. AWI launches a challenge before the Federal Trade Commission to a deceptive animal welfare label claim by a prominent poultry producer. The USFWS is told (in court) to get it in gear on red wolf recovery. AWI scholarship winners take animal welfare ethic to college, while cuttlefish flex their brains by passing the famed marshmallow test. A new whale species is identified in the Gulf of Mexico.

AWI is funding studies to promote peaceful coexistence between wolves and humans, while the US Fish and Wildlife Service is stripping away Endangered Species Act protections for gray wolves and abandoning its once-successful recovery program for red wolves. Meanwhile, a bit of positive news for some wolf descendants: Greyhound racing is coming to an end in Florida and other states, and a long-lost canine reunites with his family.

The infamous private zoo featured in Tiger King finally shuts down. The world’s nations struggle to shape international animal protection agreements without the benefit of in-person meetings during a pandemic. USDA inspection photos document unconscionable conditions at a facility that supplies chinchillas for research. Why protecting predators can boost the economy. AWI’s review of the best dissection alternative tools for classrooms.

AWI’s successful campaign to end wildlife-killing contests in Colorado. Reviews of two nature documentaries that aim to inspire and thoughts on how Tiger King fell short. How the COVID-19 pandemic, which has profoundly altered so much of human society, has implications for animal welfare as well—from dogs and cats in shelters to marine mammals in aquariums to bears in Yosemite. We also examine how expanding trade in wildlife and inhumane treatment of farm animals greatly increases the risk of pandemics.

In this issue: what is lost when US environmental laws are weakened; behind-the-scenes chicanery that is killing horses at US racetracks; the inexorable, welcome decline of commercial whaling; unchecked animal abuse at the nation’s primary supplier of chinchillas for research; kind souls knitting nests to help rehabilitate wildlife. Also, for researchers: apply now for grants to study ways to reduce human-wildlife conflicts. And for high school students: enter the “A Voice for Animals” contest!