Fall 2008
Download pdf
-
About The Cover A 17-month-old Bengal tiger licks her brother's ear in the late afternoon of India's dry season at the Bandhavgarh National Park. The 105 square kilometer park is pristine wilderness for a variety of species, and boasts the highest known density of tigers in the entire country. While tigers... more...
-
Their Shells Won't Protect Them … but state laws should. This River Cooter is one of the many turtle species being exploited for meat consumed domestically and abroad. CHINA'S INSATIABLE APPETITE for turtle meat has caused concern in Florida and Georgia, where the largely unregulated turtle trapping business has grown to meet the lucrative... more...
-
Table of Contents ANIMALS IN AGRICULTURE Albert Schweitzer Ceremony News in Brief ANIMALS IN LABORATORIES Monkey Misfortune Means Major Misgivings Of Monkeys and Men ANIMALS IN THE OCEANS Sea Turtle Mourns Death of Friend Swimming With the Fishes Beleaguered Bottlenose News in... more...
-
Back from the Dead CI/Annette Olsson and Heng Sokrith Two hairy-nosed otters were discovered in the U Minh Ha National Park by Vietnamese field scientists in March. The species—thought to be extinct throughout the world in the '90s—is considered the rarest and least-known otter species in the world.... more...
-
Seeing the Forest for the Eucalyptus Ten years ago, the Australian government implemented the National Koala Conservation Strategy to deal with the many issues surrounding the conservation of the koala and its habitat. Today, the government is set to review the strategy that many believe is in dire need of an overhaul. Deborah... more...
-
Dogs Express Empathy When They Yawn ALMOST ALL ANIMALS DO IT. Even birds and snakes. But up until recently, scientists thought that only humans and chimpanzees were capable of "contagious" yawning—where one yawns after seeing someone else yawn. Some scientists feel that the infectious quality of yawns could be... more...
-
Mother Duck Doesn't Give Up This summer, six mallard ducklings got sucked into a drain and trapped in a sewer in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. The mother duck persistently followed her babies' "cheeps" by listening through manhole covers as the six were swept along underground. She crossed busy streets, a metro... more...
-
Sea Turtle Mourns the Death of Friend Locals and tourists at the Laniakea Beach in Hawaii took a particular liking to a green sea turtle and affectionately named her Honeygirl for her distinct amber-colored shell. She was the largest female in a bale of approximately 20 sea turtles who frequent the beach. This past summer,... more...
-
Tigers: On the Precipice of Extinction ailments, impotence and the like. POPULARITY OF TIGERS is rivaled by few other species. While relatively few humans have ever seen tigers in their natural habitats, tigers have a visible presence in our culture. Whether it's Tigger cavorting with Winnie the Pooh or Tony the Tiger hawking... more...
-
Puppy mill stops churning Kara Seamen, a volunteer rescuer, holds Sunshine who was bred so many times her abdomen has become distended in pregnancy. Approximately 1,000 dogs were seized from the Whispering Oaks Kennels in Parkersburg, W. Va., on August 23, where they were found living in deplorable... more...
-
Of Monkeys and Men Tonkean macaques are known for their uncanny display of ethics during conflict resolution, when a third macaque will intervene to quell a scuffle between two fighting peers. Ironically, the lapse in ethics comes from officials at a French university, where a colony of macaques were used for... more...
-
Polly Wanna Appeal? he Central Virginia Parrot Sanctuary rescued 31 macaws from a parrot breeding facility, where they were suffering from severe skin conditions and self-mutilation. A Virginia court ruling did more than just ruffle a few feathers this summer over a negligent parrot breeding case—it... more...
-
Swimming with the Fishes Following a recent staff restructuring, the Georgia Aquarium announced its new marketing strategy: to display new animals every 90 days in order to achieve an annual attendance of three million people by 2011. As the world's largest aquarium, it has received considerable attention since opening... more...
-
Shark Finning In July, the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously voted in favor of H.R. 5741, the Shark Conservation Act of 2008, which tightens enforcement of the 2000 Shark Finning Prohibition Act. A Senate companion bill (S. 3231) has also been introduced by Senator John Kerry (D-MA). Since the original... more...
-
Whaling Japan, Norway and Iceland continue to evade the international ban on whaling, killing more than 25,000 whales since the ban took effect in 1986. A week before Congress was due to recess for August, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) introduced a bill to amend the Whaling Convention Act—a law... more...
-
Tracking Animal Cruelty Under the Animal Crueltruelty Statistic Act (S. 2439/ H.R. 6597) the U.S. Attorney General and federal law enforcement would be compelled to track and maintain data on animal cruelty in order to facilitate analysis and prevention of such crimes. Given the strong link between violence toward... more...
-
Brian Anselmo Gone Much Too Soon Brian Anselmo and pal Izzie. We are deeply saddened at the death of our dear friend and colleague, Brian Mitchell Anselmo. Brian passed away unexpectedly on September 2 at 28 years of age. His joie de vivre and sense of humor were a breath of fresh air to those of us fortunate enough to... more...
-
John Hettinger
Devoted Horseman and Welfarist John Hettinger on his N.Y. farm. It is with heavy heartS that we announce the passing of horseman and humanitarian, John Hettinger, who died at 74 years of age at his New York farm on September 6. One of the nation's leading advocates for the humane treatment of horses, John was the... more... -
BON APPÉTIT? Those who believe "you are what you eat" may be left with a bad taste in their mouths from the recent FDA decision to consider genetically altered animals for human consumption. Since genetic engineering is far from a precise science, less than 1 percent of genetically altered animals are... more...
-
Hormel Supplier Elicits Squeals of Horror A three-month undercover PETA investigation of an Iowa-based Hormel supplier revealed disturbing findings: Severe abuses included pregnant sows brutally kicked, beaten and sodomized with metal rods; piglets' heads slammed against the concrete floor and left in a pile to die; pigs' eyes poked out... more...
-
Farm Bureau "Creates Belief;" Perpetuates Lies Extensive media coverage of a cascade of animal welfare violations, both on the farm and at slaughter, has fed an already growing public awareness of the cruelty of factory farming. In an attempt to improve the industry's image without actually addressing animal welfare concerns, the American... more...
-
Beleaguered Bottlenose: The unrelenting capture and sale of wild dolphins in the Solomons Islands Tourists visit the Solomon Islands for the sun, the sand and the sea—a tropical picture of perfection. Favored by scuba divers and adventurous travelers, the South Pacific archipelago has also seen its share of history, from being a protectorate of the United Kingdom for over a century, to... more...
-
Horse Slaughter WITH LAST YEAR'S CLOSURE of the country's three remaining horse slaughter plants under state law, no horses were slaughtered in the U.S. this year. However, in the absence of a federal law banning the practice, tens of thousands of American horses continued to be exported to Canada and Mexico,... more...
-
Research Industry Clings to Random Source Dealers AWI has been a long-time supporter of the Pet Safety and Protection Act (S. 714/H.R. 1280), designed to prohibit brokers called Class B dealers from selling stray and illegally acquired dogs and cats to experimental laboratories. While these transactions are regulated by the Animal Welfare Act,... more...
-
Marine National Monument: Useless Without Funding IN RESPONSE to the massive amounts of debris littering the area, two years ago, President Bush declared almost 140,000 square miles around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. The area constitutes one of the largest marine conservation areas in the... more...
-
The Vanishing Vaquita Whathat is plaguiplaguing the shy vavaquitauita porpoise who inhabits the northern part of the Gulf of California, Mexico? It's not pollution, global warming or other environmental threats. It's gillnets. Though the killings are unintentional, the vaquitas are nonetheless drowning in fishermen's... more...
-
Endangered Right Whales Still Await Protection After years of delay by the Bush administration, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) finally released regulations expected to reduce the liklihood of vessels coliding with North Atlantic right whales. The regulations require vessels of 65 ft and over in length to reduce speed to 10 knots... more...
-
AWI PARTNERS WITH LOCAL GROUP TO PROTECT THREATENED LYNX Despite their protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), Canada lynx continue to be incidentally caught, injured and sometimes killed in Maine by leghold and Conibear traps, whose use is permissible by the state's Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. In order to stop the agency... more...
-
Despite opposition, W.Va. squirrel flies off the Endangered Species List The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the West Virginia northern flying squirrel from the Endangered Species List. The species was first listed in 1985 after losing much of its habitat to logging. This announcement has been met with opposition from numerous scientists and wildlife advocates... more...
-
Fighting Tooth and Claw: The Nation's Wolf Controversy Gray wolf presence continues to spark controversy in Alaska (see Spring and Summer 2008 AWI Quarterly), particularly now that the state's governor, Sarah Palin, is running on the Republican Presidential ticket this fall. On August 26, Alaskans voted down a state ballot initiative that would have... more...
-
Another Stab at the Endangered Species Act Since the 1970s, Endangered Species Act protections have been instrumental in bringing species back from the brink of extinction, including the whooping crane, red wolf and sea turtles. Now, proposed modifications to the law would drastically alter the process used for decades to review the... more...
-
Safe Pair Housing of Macaques By Jodi Carlson AWI, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-938414-93-3 48 pages Safe Pair Housing of Macaques, by Jodi Carlson, D.V.M., associate research scientist at the Yale University School of Medicine, is now available from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). Those working with macaques in a... more...
-
Environmental Enrichment By Viktor Reinhardt AWI, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-938414-92-6 130 pages In this third edition of Environmental Enrichment and Refinement for Nonhuman Primates in Research Laboratories the collection of photographs has been expanded from rhesus macaques to include all nonhuman primates.... more...
-
Factory Farming: The Experiment That Failed By Various Authors AWI, 2008 ISBN: 978-0-938414-13-1 158 pages Volume II of Factory Farming: The Experiment That Failed has been published as a continuation of the first book from 1987. The latest volume covers AWI's Quarterly writings on farm animal issues from 1987 to 2008, giving... more...
-
More than Puppy Love
AWI's new children's book on dog care teaches kids a lesson in love in a diverse world. There are many books available today on how to find the perfect dog, but there is only one that tells us how a dog can find the perfect person. The Animal Welfare Institute's latest book for young children ages 4 to 8, Pablo Puppy's Search for the Perfect Person is the heartwarming story of... more... -
Battle in Seattle Runtime: 98 minutes "WTO Talks Collapse Without Agreement"—Headlines like this appeared in newspapers, following five days of demonstrations that took place on the streets of Seattle in 1999 to protest the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference. Some 50,000 protestors from... more...
-
The Lizard King: The True Crimes and Passions of the World's Greatest Reptile Smugglers By Bryan Christy Twelve, 2008 ISBN-10: 0446580953 239 pages; $24.99 After reading this captivatiating true story, you may never look at a reptile in the pet store—or perhaps any animal in a pet store—the same way again. Freelance writer Bryan Christy details the world of a lizard kingpin and... more...
-
Homestretch www.homestretchthemovie.com Runtime: 53 minutes A beautiful and compelling documentary about the ability of humans and animals to assist each other in the most remarkable of ways, Homestretch, by Sheri Bylander, tells of a unique program whereby prisoners and rescued Thoroughbreds are... more...
-
Unleashing Creativity to Unchain Dogs By Debra J. White A dog named Joey is tethered by a chain day after day, night after night in his owner's backyard. Harriet, a very clever cat, moves next door and takes an immediate interest in Joey's plight. How does the story end? Will Harriet be able to free Joey? How will he feel if she... more...
-
The Measure of the Man...in Hands "You take an old redneck country bumpkin from Genoa, Arkansas, and you bring him to Washington, D.C., and you dress him up …" That's how Animal Welfare Institute's (AWI) Schweitzer Award honoree, Greg Fett, sees the sequence of events that followed his rescue of 11 horses on their way to... more...
-
Lawsuit against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Finally Goes to Trial For approximately eight years now, AWI has been part of a monumental legal effort against Ringling Bros. and its parent company, Feld Entertainment, for their brutal treatment of Asian elephants under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These elephants are chained most of the day and night, and are... more...
-
More than 50 years of legislative action AWI recently issued its 2008 "Legislative Booklet," which gives an overview of the organization's legislative work since the group's founding in 1951. Before AWI was established, only two federal laws existed to protect animals. Since then, we have worked diligently to enact and strengthen... more...
