AWI, together with the Humane Education Network, congratulates the winners of the 2021 “A Voice for Animals” competition. Through video, photos, and essays, the contest encourages students age 14–18 to examine issues involving animal welfare and ways to reduce animal suffering. This year, several of these prize-winning submissions showcased not just the actions of the
Read moreIt was a simple gesture. In 2006, a single donor to the Animal Welfare Institute offered a $10,000 grant to support the development of new tools and strategies to prevent, reduce, or mitigate human-wildlife conflicts in North America. This offer became the cornerstone of the Christine Stevens Wildlife Awards, a grant program established that same
Read moreAfter four decades in the fight to end commercial whaling worldwide, Kate O’Connell, senior policy consultant for AWI’s Marine Life program, is on a first-name basis with virtually every major player impacting the cetacean protection movement. Friend or foe, they can’t help but like her. She has been known to berate fishing industry representatives in
Read moreHigh in the clear blue skies over the Grand Canyon, California condors wheel slowly, searching for their next meal. In the shortgrass prairie of Wyoming, the dark eyes of black-footed ferrets peek out from the safety of old prairie dog burrows. Across the woods and marshes of eastern North Carolina, the howls of elusive red
Read moreFor animals and those who care about their welfare, the outlook in our nation’s capital is bleak. In January, the second Trump administration and majority leadership in the 119th Congress assumed office with the stated objectives of dismantling many federal agencies and programs, including those responsible for protecting and regulating the treatment of animals, and of
Read moreSince 2013, with the release of the documentary Blackfish, the campaign to end the captive display of cetaceans has made strong progress. Locations where free-ranging cetaceans were still captured for sale to dolphinariums have shuttered operations; legislation restricting or phasing out captive display of cetaceans has passed in several countries; and (outside of China) the number
Read moreIn April, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a proposed rule that would undermine protections for habitat that threatened and endangered species need to survive by rescinding the agencies’ decades-old definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). One of the ESA’s primary protective measures
Read moreThe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, within the Department of Commerce, is among a host of federal agencies with science-based missions that have been rocked by deep budgetary and staffing cuts imposed by the Trump administration and its so-called Department of Government Efficiency. Similar cuts are also upending environmental science efforts at the Department of
Read moreThe National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) determined today that 42 nations may not export certain seafood products to the United States because fishers in these countries catch marine mammals in violation of US standards. The agency found that the nations failed to adopt bycatch prevention measures that are comparable to what US fishers must follow under the
Read moreFrom examining how plastics smother and abrade coral reefs, to spreading awareness about donkeys being sacrificed for the donkey-hide gelatin trade, participants in the 2025 “A Voice for Animals” contest use creative prose and compelling imagery to inspire their peers and communities to advocate for species under siege. The annual contest offers high school students
Read moreA commission under the United States-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) released a report yesterday confirming that Mexico’s unwillingness to enforce its own wildlife protection, trade, and fisheries laws...
In this op-ed for the Tampa Bay Times, Dr. Naomi Rose, AWI’s senior scientist in marine mammal biology, discusses the challenges in caring for orcas...
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and an international coalition of animal protection and environmental groups are calling on Yahoo! Japan and its parent company, the...
Japan and Norway resumed slaughtering whales this month, while Iceland’s only fin whaling company has decided that it will not hunt this summer, citing a...
