Press Statement – Animal Welfare Institute

Naomi Rose’s Response to the April 8th Hearing on AB2140

Naomi Rose, Marine Mammal Scientist for the Animal Welfare Institute, issued the following statement in response to today’s hearing on AB 2140, regarding orca captivity:

“We are pleased to see that the committee will further review this issue and help ensure SeaWorld finally comes to the table. The science is clear—holding killer whales in captivity is harmful to the whales and to the trainers. The interim study mandated by the committee will provide further evidence of the need for this bill. We look forward to participating in this effort and excited to return next session to pass this bill into law.”

To see an archive of the Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee hearing on April 8th, 2014, please click here.

AWI Mourns Congressman Raúl Grijalva, an Exceptional Champion for Animals

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), a staunch advocate for animals and the environment who dedicated half a century to public service, died Thursday at the age of 77.

In response, Susan Millward, executive director and chief executive officer of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), issued the following statement:

“Congressman Grijalva was a passionate supporter of the Endangered Species Act, defending it time and time again from attacks. As chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources and co-chair of the ESA Caucus, he was tireless in his advocacy for this bedrock conservation law. Additionally, he sponsored important conservation bills such as the RESCUE Whales Act; Extinction Prevention Act; Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act; and Tribal Heritage and American Bison, Grizzly Bear, and Wolf Restoration and Coexistence Act.

“His compassion truly extended to all animals. He strongly supported protecting our nation’s wild horses and burros, championing the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Protection Act and other efforts to humanely manage herds. He also led the Traveling Exotic Animal and Public Safety Protection Act to end the use of wild animals in circuses.

“AWI has deeply valued our partnership with Rep. Grijalva on these crucial issues over the years, and we are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such a principled and kind man. We send our condolences to his family and staff, and we will carry on his legacy of fierce and unyielding advocacy for all living beings.”

AWI’s Statement on SeaWorld Ending Orca Breeding Program

The Animal Welfare Institute welcomes the announcement today by SeaWorld that it will end the company-wide breeding program for its orcas, which will lead to a phase-out of the display of orcas in all of its parks. SeaWorld will also refocus on its rescue, rehabilitation and release mission, become more actively and openly engaged in advocacy for marine conservation, and promote more environmentally sound and humane practices when sourcing food for its parks’ restaurants.

The decision to end its orca breeding program globally and to commit to ending the collection of exhibit animals from the wild, as well as to a “no orca” policy should SeaWorld expand its brand into new international markets, is a monumental and important first step forward in achieving a more humane business model for the company.

We thank SeaWorld’s CEO, Joel Manby, for making these commitments and being responsive to the desires and views of the company’s theme park visitors. We look forward to engaging in future discussions with Manby and his team to ensure that the company continues to improve its practices and policies surrounding captive cetaceans.

AWI Statement on Proposed Animal Welfare Regulations for the Certified Organic Label

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) commends the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for proposing requirements for the welfare of animals raised under the Certified Organic label. AWI generally supports the proposed regulations, which are based on the recommendations of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), an advisory body to the USDA’s organic program.

The proposed regulations are desperately needed, given that no substantive standards for the raising of animals have existed since the national organic regulations went into effect in February 2001. The lack of specific requirements for animal welfare has resulted in great variability in the level of animal care provided by organic producers. Some producers raise animals on pasture with high welfare, while others raise animals in a manner similar to conventional, intensive agriculture. In some instances organically raised animals are never even given the opportunity to go outdoors, for example.

One of the chief reasons shoppers choose to pay more for organic foods is because they believe animals raised under organic systems are treated better. However, because this is not always the case, animal welfare organizations in the United States typically do not recommend the Certified Organic label to consumers. The NOSB has acknowledged that imprecise language in the organic regulations has created production practices “which could allow the welfare of some animals to be compromised.”

AWI has worked toward strong animal welfare standards since the organic regulations were originally drafted in the 1990s. The organization has testified at NOSB meetings and served on an animal welfare working group that advised the board’s Livestock Committee. It has also engaged thousands of its supporters in lobbying the NOSB and the USDA to adopt strong animal welfare standards.

The proposed regulations represent the first comprehensive federal standards for the raising of farm animals in the United States. The USDA should act expeditiously to finalize the rule.

AWI Statement on Ringling Bros. Ending Elephant Acts

May 1 marks the end of elephants being hauled around the country to perform for Ringling Bros. circus. While we celebrate the termination of this cruel and archaic practice, tragically, the elephants will not be spending the rest of their lives in nirvana. Rather than sending them to a sanctuary, the elephants will be held at the company’s Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida, long known for chaining and keeping elephants on concrete and for using bullhooks and electric prods. While the site may have “conservation” in its name, the elephants will be bred to produce more captive elephants with no hope of returning to the wild.

The Animal Welfare Institute defines a sanctuary as a safe haven for wildlife who have suffered because of their captivity. It is a place that provides for the needs of the individual animals for the rest of their lives, including species-appropriate housing, veterinary care, enrichment, socialization, and safety. In a sanctuary, animals are not bred or used for commercial gain, and any exposure to the public is limited and certainly not permitted when such exposure comes at the expense of the animals’ welfare. Negative reinforcement and intensive confinement are also strictly prohibited. Ringling’s facility fails miserably to meet these parameters.

We call on the circus to do justice by these magnificent pachyderms and retire its elephants to a bona fide sanctuary.

AWI Statement in Response to False Online Petitions

Over the past few months, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has been the target of several online petitions, circulated on Change.org and spread through social media networks, which falsely claim AWI supports the cruel killing of coyote pups and the use of steel-jaw leghold traps on federal refuge lands. These claims could not be further from the truth. AWI is and has always been vehemently opposed to both practices.

AWI has campaigned vigorously for years against the steel-jaw leghold trap in this country and abroad. Unfortunately, as in most US states, it is legal to use steel-jaw leghold traps in North Carolina. We have always been and continue to be opposed to these traps—instruments of pain and suffering that endanger people, pets, and wildlife.

In recent years, AWI and fellow NGOs have brought multiple lawsuits in North Carolina to protect the highly endangered red wolves. Coyotes are hard to distinguish from red wolves. Thus, when the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission wanted to allow coyote hunting in the five-county red wolf recovery area, we sued to prevent it.

In the past, the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s red wolf recovery team euthanized hybrid pups. AWI has never advocated for this practice. On the contrary, whenever possible, we support humane capture and sterilization of coyotes in the red wolf recovery area so that the coyotes can continue to live there without posing a threat to the wolves through hybridization.

These petitions and associated linked photo/video montages contain inaccurate and misleading information about AWI. We believe the individuals behind this apparent smear campaign are attempting to threaten AWI’s very existence and base of support, as well as harass and intimidate AWI’s staff.

Since its founding in 1951, AWI has been dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. We seek better treatment of animals everywhere—in the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild.

Statement in Response to US/Mexico’s Renewed Commitment to Imperiled Vaquita

Animal Welfare Institute, Center for Biological Diversity, and the Natural Resources Defense Council make the following statement regarding President Obama and President Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico’s commitments on the imperiled vaquita, announced today http://bit.ly/2a6uP2R:

The United States and Mexico have renewed their commitment to save the vaquita, which couldn’t come at a more desperate time, with fewer than 60 of these small Mexican porpoises left on Earth. We are greatly encouraged by Mexico’s stated commitment to permanently ban all gillnets in all fisheries throughout the vaquita’s entire range – a step scientists have long recommended to stop vaquita from becoming entangled in Mexican fishing nets. But to truly save the vaquita, the Mexican government must go beyond policy pronouncements and commit financing, staff, and political will from the highest level to ensure that ban is fully and diligently enforced on the water. The vaquita’s very existence is at stake.

AWI Statement in Response to Death of SeaWorld Orca Tilikum

Tilikum, the SeaWorld orca who changed the captive cetacean world when he killed his trainer, Dawn Brancheau, at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010, has died. He was approximately 36 years of age and the father of many of SeaWorld’s current population of orcas.

Dr. Naomi Rose, Animal Welfare Institute marine mammal scientist, provided the following statement in response to his death:

“Tilikum lived longer than almost any other captive male orca has, but his life was one of deprivation and difficulty. He was captured from the wild as a calf in Iceland in 1983. He lived for several years in a tiny enclosure at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia, where he was harassed and bullied by two older females. In 1991, he and the other orcas killed a part-time trainer, Keltie Byrne, treating her as a novel toy when she fell in and eventually drowning her. Once he was transferred to SeaWorld, he was treated as a valuable stud and fathered many calves, about half of whom survive today. He watched over the years as his mates and offspring died or were transferred to other parks. By the end, he was fairly isolated, with some of his favorite companions long gone.

In 1999, Tilikum also killed another person, Daniel Dukes, a young man who stayed in the park after hours and was found dead, draped over Tilikum’s back, in the morning. Autopsy results indicated that Tilikum dragged Dukes around the tank while he was still alive, similar to how he treated Byrne. Dukes eventually drowned, just as Byrne did, but the details of what exactly happened can’t be known, as there were no witnesses. What is certain, however, is that Dukes did not die of hypothermia, as SeaWorld reported at the time and insists to this day.

A necropsy will be performed on Tilikum. Given Tilikum’s global stature, it is essential that SeaWorld make the full results of that necropsy available to the public.

It is long since time for SeaWorld to begin serious consideration of retiring all of its orcas to seaside sanctuaries. Forcing these large, intelligent, socially complex animals to live out their sometimes decades-long lives in barren concrete tanks must end.”

AWI Statement in Response to Ringling’s Closure Announcement

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus announced it is shutting its doors in May 2017 after 146 years in operation, according to a January 14 press release from Feld Entertainment.

Cathy Liss, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) president, provided the following statement in response to the company’s announcement:

“The closure of the Ringling Bros. Circus later this year is great news for the wide array of exotic animals enduring deprived lives in servitude to the circus’ commercial interests.

We hope that Feld Entertainment will ensure that the “suitable homes” it finds for the animals will actually be bona fide sanctuaries so the animals can spend their remaining days doing what matters to them.

Although we celebrate this victory, we will continue our work, as we have for many years, to expose the inhumane treatment of animals held by circuses around the world.”

Statement in Response to Second Delay of Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices Rule

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and Farm Forward implore the USDA to implement the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule without delay.

Our organizations join the voices of farmers, consumer and health advocates, food companies, and the National Organic Standards Board calling to finalize the outcome of the 15-year collaborative process that created what would be the first comprehensive federal standards for on-farm welfare.

The Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule requires outdoor access for all animals, including egg-laying hens; sets indoor and outdoor space requirements for chickens; restricts physical alterations; adds transport and slaughter standards; and sets other crucial minimum standards.

This rule is critical not only for animals but also to level the playing field for higher welfare organic producers. These farmers are competing against “faux-ganic” industrial producers who profit from the public’s desire for higher welfare animal products while raising animals in factory farms. The rule also protects consumers currently paying a premium for organic food in the belief that the label is proof of higher welfare.

The USDA needs to heed the calls of the countless farmers and groups that support this urgently needed rule and the consumers who do not want to purchase cruelty when they buy USDA Organic.