Spring 2016

Volume
65
Number
1
Spring 2016 AWI Quarterly - Cover, Photo by Ben Osborne/Minden Pictures
About the Cover

A family of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) traverses a parched landscape in Botswana. Across Africa, elephants are being slaughtered for their tusks, and the fight to save them has evolved into a war against a sophisticated criminal syndicate with ties to global terrorism. Increasingly, the syndicate's foot soldiers—poachers—are armed with advanced tools and weapons, which are aimed not only at elephants, but also at the humans who stand in the way. On page 6, Bill Clark and John Irwin discuss their efforts to ensure that rangers in Kenya have the best possible training and equipment to defend wildlife… and each other.

Photo by Ben Osborne/Minden Pictures

Table of Contents

Animals in Laboratories

Mice are the most common animal used in research. Many routine procedures (including blood pressure measurement, injections, and blood collection) require the mouse to be restrained. As manual restraint can be stressful and traumatic, mice...
A firestorm has rained down on Santa Cruz Biotechnology, Inc. (SCBT)—long one of the world’s largest antibody producers—following a February 19, 2016, Nature article entitled “Thousands of goats and rabbits vanish from major biotech lab.”
For mice in laboratories, ulcerative dermatitis is a common condition affecting their health and welfare. It is also often a death sentence, as the most common treatments are rarely effective.

Companion Animals

Unimaginable. Traumatic. That’s how the veterinarians who treated Cub described his injuries. He was discovered hobbling along a road in New Mexico; his body riddled with shotgun pellets as he tried to move on the...

Farmed Animals

AWI recently published a report on the USDA’s label approval process for “free range” (and equivalent) claims. The report shows that the USDA inadequately defines and evaluates the claim.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in November 2015 that it had approved genetically engineered (GE) salmon for human consumption—the first such approval for a GE animal. Further, the FDA stated that it had...
The Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS), an agency within the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), maintains a voluntary marketing program that allows companies to use a “USDA Process Verified” shield on their packaging when AMS has...
The “exempt” in custom-exempt signifies that this type of slaughter is excused from continuous inspection, unlike federal- and state-inspected slaughter, where government officials must be on the premises of the establishment whenever slaughter is being...

Marine Life

From 1995–1996, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) conducted a negotiated rulemaking, bringing together stakeholders of varying viewpoints in an attempt to hammer out consensus language to update the regulations governing the...
AWI co-hosted an event to highlight the plight of the vaquita porpoise and the totoaba fish during the January meeting of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora...
On December 4, 2015, the China Cetacean Alliance (CCA) launched a major campaign to raise public awareness of the suffering faced by the cetaceans held captive in China. AWI is a founding member of the...
On December 13, AWI’s Dr. Naomi Rose and her colleague Dr. Lori Marino of the Kimmela Center for Animal Advocacy conducted a workshop on sea pen sanctuaries for cetaceans, in conjunction with the 21st Biennial...
In January, the US Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a reclassification of the West Indian manatee from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. AWI strongly opposes this proposal.

Terrestrial Wildlife

The horrible poaching of tens of thousands of elephants in Africa each year has motivated people around the world to demand greater efforts to protect the great pachyderms from criminal exploitation. Ultimately, this can be...
The 66th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), held in Geneva, Switzerland, in mid-January, covered a wide range of important wildlife...
In 1987, eight years before gray wolves were released into Yellowstone National Park, the US Fish and Wildlife Service performed their first successful attempt at reintroducing a top carnivore into the wild. This took place...
Wisdom, a Laysan albatross and the oldest wild bird known to science, has just become a mom again. In February, Wisdom and her mate, Gooo (so named because he was banded with the identification number...
In December, AWI officially notified the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) of its intent to sue the agency for failing to decide in a timely fashion on whether to list the pygmy three-toed sloth...

Government Affairs

As the first session of the 114th Congress wound down at the end of 2015, a massive $1.1 trillion bill funding government operations through September 30, 2016, passed and was signed by the president.
The second session of the 114th Congress opened in January. On the 20th of the month, despite strong minority opposition and contentious debate, the Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works approved the “Bipartisan Sportsmen’s...
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) filed anti-wildlife amendments to the energy bill that reached the Senate floor in early February. He, too, proposed removing gray wolves in Wyoming and the Great Lakes states from ESA protection...

In Remembrance

With the death of Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, we lost one of the leading advocates for humane wildlife population control. His research, development, production, and long-term use of immunocontraceptives in the field and in zoos to...

Reviews

Dogs are afflicted with many of the same cancers as people. As with people, the causes are little understood and therapy can be frustratingly ineffective. Yet, there is hope. Lessons learned from veterinarians treating dogs...
AWI presented the Schweitzer Medal to Scott McVay in 1973 to honor his work on behalf of the endangered great whales. McVay has long been in the thick of the battles to save whales and...
This riveting documentary tells the tragic story of Tyke, a wild elephant forced to live within the confines of circus life and perform tricks. In 1973, a very young Tyke was wrested from her family...