Summer 2014

Volume
63
Number
3
Summer 2014 AWI Quarterly - Cover Photo by Mark Newman/FLPA/Minden Pictures
About the Cover

Twenty-seven years ago, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) reintroduced captive-bred red wolves to a portion of their native habitat in eastern North Carolina. A species that had been wiped out in the wild began, slowly, to reclaim a portion of its former habitat.

That progress was suddenly thrown into reverse when the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission decided to open up coyote hunting at night throughout the state. Subsequently, an alarming number of the wolves—who resemble coyotes—were shot and killed. AWI and allies went to court to stop the hunts in the red wolf recovery area—and won.

The commission, however, has now set its sights directly on the wolves. It wants USFWS to reevaluate (read: abandon) this so-far successful recovery effort. For more on AWI’s defense of red wolves, see the article on page 14.

Photo by Mark Newman/FLPA/Minden Pictures

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

Is there something about the blood of a young organism that can improve the health of an older one? Three recent publications from Harvard and Stanford suggest there is such a factor. The notion of...
In late May 2014, Minnesota made history by enacting a law that offers greater hope of adoption for dogs and cats in research. The bill was sponsored by the Beagle Freedom Project and authored by...
Determining the role of a drug or gene on our ability to learn is a truly difficult task. We all learn in slightly different ways. Add in disease states (such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s), or...
A May 2014 editorial in the journal Nature described “a project that aims to mutate every gene in the mouse genome to improve our knowledge of mouse biology,” that “should help avoid irreproducible results and...

Companion Animals

Governor Maggie Hassan is poised as we go to press to sign HB 1410, making New Hampshire the 27th state to allow courts to include pets in protection orders. What sets the New Hampshire bill...

Farmed Animals

AWI, along with several other animal advocacy groups, filed a rulemaking petition with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) under the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act to prevent...
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently took comments on their proposed new edition of Standards on Fire and Life Safety in Animal Housing Facilities.
The Department of Transportation’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has published a proposed change to transportation regulations in order to reduce accidents and paperwork burdens.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) indefinitely pulled its inspectors from Brooksville Meat Fabrication (“Brooksville”), a slaughterhouse in Bracken County, Kentucky, for inhumane handling and slaughtering of animals. Without USDA inspectors, Brooksville cannot legally...
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a lawsuit against USDA for its failure to protect the public from antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella .

Humane Education

There is good news in the fight against a particularly egregious form of animal cruelty. On June 13, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit overturned a lower court ruling that the Animal...
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office has launched an innovative and provocative radio, television, and billboard campaign to encourage the public to call 911 to report animal abuse. The goal is to expose more instances...

Marine Life

As reported in the Winter 2014 AWI Quarterly , a dispute resolution panel of the World Trade Organization (WTO) reached a landmark decision this past November in a case brought by Canada and Norway against...
For the past decade and more, a single capture team in the remote east of Russia, on the southern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, has been removing an average of 20 live beluga whales...
From its creation in 1946 until 2012, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) met annually. Having agreed to move to biennial meetings in 2012, it will meet for the 65th time (IWC65) this September in Slovenia.
The National Aquarium in Baltimore may be the first facility in the United States to close its dolphin exhibit as part of proactive and forward-thinking strategic planning, rather than external pressures.
As recently as five years ago, big corporations doing business with dolphinariums (such as soft drink companies, tourism agencies, or airlines) would never have agreed to openly address the controversy surrounding captive cetacean welfare.

Terrestrial Wildlife

The red wolf ( Canis rufus ) has had a perilous journey on the road to recovery. Once distributed throughout the eastern and southcentral United States, intensive predator control programs and habitat degradation drove them...
Wildlife Services, a US Department of Agriculture program with a long history of using taxpayer funds to needlessly kill wildlife, increased its already-enormous take of wild animals last year. The program’s kill statistics have varied...
Despite strong opposition, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) continues to administer the captive-bred wildlife registration program to allow for hunting of exotic and endangered animals on US ranches. Hunters pay large sums to...
In July, AWI’s wildlife biologist, D.J. Schubert, attended the 65th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Standing Committee in Geneva, Switzerland.
A judge in the West Africa country of Togo threw the book at convicted ivory trafficker Emile N’Bouke on June 18, sentencing him to the maximum penalty permitted by Togo law—two years in prison, and...
In the Summer 2011 AWI Quarterly , AWI reported on the Yasuni-ITT Initiative—whereby the Ecuadorian government sought US$3.6 billion in financial contributions from the international community in exchange for a commitment by Ecuador to forego...
In April 2014, the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was suspending imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies taken in Tanzania and Zimbabwe through the remainder of 2014.
The occasion was the official presentation to the Library of Congress of A Dangerous Life , a graphic novel written and illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka and published by AWI and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)...
Walk into any hardware store in the United States and chances are good that you can find highly toxic rodent poisons for sale. This includes loose poison pellets in open trays, not contained in any...
Pygmy three-toed sloths ( Bradypus pygmaeus ) may be on track to receive protection under the US Endangered Species Act (ESA). Such a listing would help prevent zoos and other US facilities from going abroad...

Government Affairs

On June 18, 2014, the US House of Representatives adopted an amendment to the FY2015 defense appropriations bill to improve the lives of wounded warriors through better access to service dogs.
Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA) has introduced bills to remedy two different animal welfare problems. The first, H.R. 4148, the Humane Cosmetics Act, prohibits testing cosmetics on animals and also the sale of any cosmetics or...
In February, the House of Representatives passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act. A companion bill, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2014, was then introduced in the Senate. AWI rallied opposition to this bill...
As previous Quarterly articles have reported, white-nose syndrome (WNS) is having a devastating effect on US and Canadian populations of hibernating bats. Some formerly abundant species are now on the brink of becoming endangered. The...

Reviews

Karen Paolillo’s new book focuses on the lives of a small group of wild hippos, but she also provides a broader look at the lives of wildlife and people in southeastern Zimbabwe. The former is...
Animal Madness is a fascinating book, which I would recommend to anyone who has ever looked at an animal and wondered what they were thinking. Do the dog’s mournful eyes represent guilt or sadness, emotions...
Given that more than 90 percent of Americans believe that their dog or cat is a family member, is it time for the law to recognize companion animals as people under the law? In this...