Fall 2012

Volume
61
Number
4
Fall 2012 AWI Quarterly Cover - Photo by Matthias Breiter
About the Cover

The mountain lion (Puma concolor), also known as puma, cougar, and catamount, is an adaptable animal, historically occupying a variety of landscapes from the Canadian Yukon to the southern tip of South America, including nearly all of the contiguous 48 US states. In fact, among mammal species of the Western Hemisphere, only Homo sapiens inhabit a larger range. In the United States, however, that range has been drastically reduced. By the early 20th century, mountain lions were eliminated from nearly all of the midwestern and eastern parts of the country. As human settlers pushed west, they took their fear and animosity toward lions with them. On page 6 of this issue, Lynn Cullens, Tim Dunbar, and Amy Rodrigues of the Mountain Lion Foundation discuss the persecution lions continue to face in many western states, where they are still legally hunted despite great uncertainty as to their numbers and continued viability.

Photo by Matthias Breiter/Minden Pictures

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

Multiple serious and disturbing Animal Welfare Act citations by USDA veterinary inspectors at Harvard’s New England Primate Research Center (NEPRC) were reported in the Spring 2012 AWI Quarterly . In June, according to The Boston...

Farmed Animals

AWI’s Melissa Liszewski presented research on hen welfare at the 46th Congress of the International Society for Applied Ethology (ISAE), held in Vienna, Austria, from July 31 to August 4.
More than 1,000 breeding dairy cattle of 3,400 cattle shipped from Galveston, Texas, to Russia in August died during the voyage or shortly after arrival.
On July 23, the National Milk Producers Federation Board of Directors approved a resolution opposing tail docking of dairy cows in their industry guidelines, recommending the practice be phased out by 2022.

Marine Life

Almost two decades ago the US aquarium industry—facing mounting public distaste with the practice—ceased importing healthy wild-caught cetaceans for commercial display. Since then, people across the globe have come to realize that no aquarium can...
The 64th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Panama City, Panama, represented a challenge for the Contracting Parties: to overcome the difficulties that led to the disruption of the IWC’s 63rd meeting...
In recent years, there has been a considerable increase in the use of passive acoustic techniques to study cetaceans. One of the main advantages of listening over watching is that light in water attenuates within...

Terrestrial Wildlife

The Wild Horse Symposium and 7th International Conference on Fertility Control in Wildlife was held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, from August 29 to September 1. Researchers from around the world discussed recent scientific, regulatory, and...
The eastern hellbender is a large, aquatic salamander that historically occurred throughout much of the eastern United States. Research has suggested that once abundant hellbenders, which eat crayfish and live under rocks in cool, clear...
Mountain lions were once acknowledged as great hunters and revered as symbols of bravery and strength. But as Europeans settled across the continent, the indigenous peoples’ respect was replaced with fear. Mountain lions were perceived...
Endangered animals are being scooped up in alarming numbers to serve as pets. Many of them, sadly, do not long survive the transition into captivity.
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.
The ScottsMiracle-Gro Company was ordered in September to pay $12.5 million in civil and criminal fines and perform community service in connection with eleven criminal violations of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Only about 100 or so wild red wolves ( Canis rufus ) are known to exist—all in eastern North Carolina, where a population was reintroduced in 1987 from a captive-breeding program after the species went...
On May 19, 2012, the Sierra Club national board of directors adopted a new “Policy on Trapping of Wildlife.” The policy is perhaps the strongest statement issued to date by the 110-year-old organization in condemnation...
According to recent surveys, the primary consumers of rare animal parts may not be who we thought they were.
It's easy to fall in love with Bernadette, Valerie and Wee Willy, three wild burros, adopted earlier this year from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Their charismatic personalities and occasional, delightful brays are enough...

Government Affairs

When Congress hustled out of town in September, it left a lot of unfinished business. Both the House Agriculture Committee and the full Senate had approved amendments to their farm bills that would prohibit attending...
AWI’s Animal Welfare Approved products continue to experience increased demand across the country. One recent request was from the National Democratic Club in Washington, D.C., which now purchases pasture-raised eggs from Carole Morison.
On September 26, AWI participated in a Capitol Hill briefing on H.R. 4122, the Big Cat and Public Safety Protection Act, which Reps. Buck McKeon (R-NC) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) introduced in response to the...
Sens. Kay Hagen (D-NC) and Richard Burr (R-NC) have introduced S. 3448, the Corolla Wild Horses Protection Act.
One of the many myths about high-welfare, sustainable food is that it's a "niche" market, only for the well off. Tackling the common misconception that making the right food choices is (at best) prohibitively expensive...
Building on the public outrage accompanying several high profile prosecutions of horse soring, Reps. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) and Steve Cohen (D-TN) introduced legislation to strengthen the Horse Protection Act (HPA).

Reviews

Semi-biographical, this book centers on the subject of keeping orcas in captivity for human entertainment. It is full of carefully researched facts and statistics, and meticulously details whale-human incidents and red flags that preceded the...
September marked the 50th anniversary of the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, a revolutionary exposé on the calamitous effect of unleashing DDT and other pesticides indiscriminately on the environment.
When it comes to charismatic ocean species, sea turtles share the spotlight with magnificent marine mammals. However, the seven threatened and endangered species of sea turtles swimming the oceans are more than simply conservation icons.