Fall 2000
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Koala and Lynx Listed as Koala and Lynx Listed as "Threatened" Under ESA The United States Fish and Wildlife Service acted on behalf of two of the world's most species this spring when it listed the koala and the Canada lynx as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Such a federal listing... more...
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But Will He Get Frequent Flyer Miles In the United States, an estimated 5,000 animals are killed, injured or lost during transportation by commercial airlines each year. Animals, treated as mere baggage, are mishandled by baggage personnel, exposed to extreme heat or cold, and denied sufficient oxygen while in the cargo... more...
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Gunsmoke France has found itself under the gun (if you'll pardon the expression) to bring its hunting laws in line with the Directives of the European Union. The Directives' primary concern is the protection of European fauna. The initial EU laws were passed in 1975, and the 1.6 million strong... more...
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Changing the Housing Standard for Monkeys in Laboratories Biomedical and psychological testing conducted with monkeys is often tainted by unresolved ethical questions. Although animal advocates tend to focus their concerns on cruel experimental procedures, the resultant suffering from a particular test is usually of a relatively short duration.... more...
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European Community The European Community (EC) Proposal on Animal Welfare and Trade in Agriculture, submitted to the WTO Committee on Agriculture on June 28,2000, states, "In Practice, our concerns with animal welfare are most acute in relation to highly-intensive and industrialized production methods... more...
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Harpoons Readied Time to Save the Whales Despite overwhelming evidence that the world's whales are struggling against a huge array of new threats, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) voted in Adelaide, Australia, July 3-6, to fast track a scheme designed to legitimize commercial whaling. Inexplicably, many formerly... more...
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A Winnable Fight The first conference on the dangerous artificial hormone rBGH was held June 17th in Washington, DC. Corporate giant, Monsanto, rBGH's manufacturer and promoter, hates to admit that rBGH is a hormone so it has given it the bland name, "Posilac," and has sold more and more of the big... more...
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Cutting the Gordian Knot A Simple Solution to the Slaughterhouse Disaster The slaughter line must be slowed, 300 animals cannot be rendered unconscious in a single hour. In 1905, publication of Upton Sinclair's novel The Jungle describing the abominable state of American slaughterhouses set off a... more...
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Brazen Japan Plans Further Whale Slaughter Japan has ignited a firestorm of criticism by launching a new round of "scientific" whaling, this time targeting ten endangered sperm and fifty Brydes (pronounced "Brutus") whales in the North Pacific. Japan has ignored the International Whaling Commission's condemnation of any... more...
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Lamb on the Lam A runaway lamb, thought to have escaped from a slaughterhouse, recently achieved something many New Yorkers dream of but few accomplish—he moved fast on the FDR Drive on Manhattan's East Side during a busy time of the day. Two cops on routine patrol on Second Avenue at 120th Street, a... more...
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In Remembrance of Mary Warner Mary Warner, the friend of dogs stolen by dealers to sell to research institutions, has died at her home in Virginia. Mary was one of that vanishing breed, a private person who saw a need to protect animals and sprang into action—literally, because her organization was named Action 81.... more...
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Barbaric Butchery of Cows I estimate that 30 percent of the cows are not properly knocked [stunned] and get to the first legger alive….To still be alive at the second legger the cows have gone alive from the knocker to the sticker to the belly ripper (he cuts the hide down the center of the cow's abdomen) to the tail... more...
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AWI Joins Federal Lawsuits to Protect Manatees Deaths Set Record Pace in In January of this year, AWI joined a coalition of 18 environmental and animal welfare groups led by Save the Manatee Club (SMC), in filing two federal lawsuits, one against the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the other against the Florida... more...
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Drop Caviar from the Menu Fish and Wildlife Service officers at Baltimore-Washington International Airport in Maryland became suspicious when they saw labels on tins of Russian caviar begin to peel off. That suspicion led to the largest criminal penalty for wildlife smuggling for one of America's biggest caviar... more...
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Performing Elephants: Dying to Entertain Us Suing the Circus The Animal Welfare Institute has joined the Performing Animal Welfare Society, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Fund for Animals in a lawsuit filed on July 11th, against Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus.... more...
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Frontier "Justice" In the fall of 1997, to demonstrate the abusive, inhumane and illegal methods in which animals are being trapped, Alaska wildlife biologist Gordon Haber released a video of a two-year old black wolf in a snare on a site that was covered with the carcasses of at least four dead caribou.... more...
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Congressman Brown Spoke Out Against "Skyrocketing" Line Speeds George Brown, the distinguished California Congressman who was elected for the first time in 1963, led the long fight for justice for animals. Brown, who died on July 15, 1999, was a particularly outspoken advocate for farm animals. In a 1998 letter to the Secretary of the United... more...
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Rescue of Battery Hens in Tasmania According to a release from the Australian Action Animal Rescue Team a seven-member team broke into PURE FOODS, Tasmania's largest battery hen producer on July 8, 2000. The ammonia and noxious fumes overpowered the team when entering the buildings, causing burning eyes, sore throats and... more...
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Court Says No to Self Regulation In an ongoing attempt to abdicate its responsibility of inspecting meat and poultry production, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) initiated an experimental inspection program that allows the industry to regulate itself. Under the pilot project, slaughterhouse employees... more...
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A Tribute to Ruth Harrison When you think of Ruth Harrison, who died at age 79 on June 13 at her London home, your immediate thought would be of her long crusade against factory farming. But you could also think of Henry Salt, Mahatma Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, Rachel Carson and Richard Ryder—movers and... more...
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Initiatives Against Cruel Traps in Oregon and Washington The worldwide movement against the use of steel jaw leghold traps has gained powerful momentum in the United States. Protect Pets and Wildlife, a coalition of over 100 groups, including the Society for Animal Protection Legislation, has gathered 360,000 signatures, sufficient to... more...
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Bribery Kills Whale Sanctuary The fact that Japan buys the votes of small poor countries has long been a secret within the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). This year the practice garnered unusual public scrutiny at the Australia meeting... more...
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Lacey Act Turns 100 The first American wildlife conservation law celebrates a century in force this year. The Lacey Act, authored by a Republican Congressman from Iowa named John Fletcher Lacey, prohibits the interstate and international trade in illegally taken wildlife. In 1999... more...
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A Sport Most Foul A trio of stories from The New York Times in June 2000 reveals that brutal brawls between fighting birds are alive and well in the United States—not only in rural America, but also in enclaves of inner cities. Busts in two New York City boroughs, Brooklyn and the Bronx, resulted in... more...
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Congressional Action on Animal Legislation Before our federal legislators escaped from Washington for their August recess, significant action was taken on three animal protection bills: the Great Ape Conservation Act, the Bear Protection Act and the Shark Finning Prohibition Act. On July 25th, the House of Representatives... more...
