AWI Quarterly » 2009 Spring

The Phoenix Zoo had the unfortunate task of euthanizing the last living wild jaguar in the United States in March.

2009 Spring

Chimp Plans for Tomorrow, Leaves No Stone Unturned

Though the proverb warns that "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones," it makes no mention of primates in zoo exhibits. Santino, a 30-year-old chimp in Sweden's Furuvik zoo, has been doing just that for 14 years now, angrily launching rocks and discs of concrete into crowds of tourists, New Scientist reported on their website in March.

2009 Spring

“Living Fossil” Rediscovered

Feared to be extinct in the Caribbean—the only region of the globe it once called home—the solenodon was recently caught on film and eventually captured by conservationists. Researchers from the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and the Ornithological Society of Hispaniola took measurements and DNA from the creature before releasing him back into his habitat, BBC News reported early this year.

2009 Spring

Animal Migrations May Be Moving Toward Extinction

There can't be a more remarkable sight than a mass migration of animals, be it across the plains of Africa, on a cloud-covered skyline, or along the wave-ridden ocean coasts.

2009 Spring

“Extinct” Quail Spotted Too Late

One ornithologist’s treasure is another man’s dinner. As the American Free Press (AFP) reports, while filming a documentary on traditional bird trapping methods in the Caraballo Mountains of the Philippines, a TV crew unwittingly got footage of Worcester’s buttonquail being captured by natives earlier this year.

2009 Spring

Human Appetites Driving Frogs to Extinction

An international team of scientists have added human consumption to the long list of things already threatening global frog populations, the BBC reported in January. A new study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, found that upwards of one billion frogs may be captured from the wild for this purpose every year, with France and the United States being the two largest importers.

2009 Spring

Hermits: The Unfortunate Victims of Society

It was an unusual discovery. As the mercury soared to triple digits last October in Yuma, Ariz., a hermit crab later named "Hermie" was found near a drip irrigation line in a state park - a victim of the crustacean pet trade. More than likely, he was purchased at a local pet store and then dumped near a canal behind the park’s headquarters before being rescued.

2009 Spring

Circus Finally Exposed in Federal Trial

The Animal Welfare Institute’s case against Feld Entertainment, Inc., the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, finally went to trial in February.

2009 Spring

Obama Administration Restores Scientific Review to ESA

The Obama administration is to be congratulated for its restoration of a key scientific review provision of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

2009 Spring

Congressional Directory Now Available from AWI

The Animal Welfare Institute often asks that its supporters contact members of Congress on various animal welfare bills and issues. Now it is easier to locate your elected officials, as we have just released a portable directory of the 111th Congress.

2009 Spring

Arkansas Buckles Down on Animal Cruelty

With the recent passage of its felony animal cruelty law, Arkansas has shed its dubious distinction as one of only five states - including Idaho, Mississippi, and the Dakotas - still treating heinous acts of animal abuse as mere misdemeanors.

2009 Spring

Elephant Cruelty Under the Big Top: Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus Finally Exposed in Federal Court Trial

"The elephants I grew to know and love at the circus were beaten daily with sharp bull hooks and chained like prisoners for hours on end."

2009 Spring

The Inner World of Farm Animals

By Amy Hatkoff Stewart, Tabori & Chang ISBN-10: 1584797487 176 pages; $19.95 Amy Hatkoff makes clear in her new book, The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Social, Emotional, and Intellectual Capabilities, that these animals feel pleasure and sadness, excitement and resentment, depression, fear and pain.

2009 Spring

Righteous Porkchop

By Nicolette Hahn William Morrow ISBN-10: 0061466492 336 pages; $23.99 Righteous Porkchop begins with author Nicolette Hahn describing her first exposure to the realities of industrial pig "production" as senior attorney for Waterkeeper Alliance. Nothing she had read prepared her for the stench, pollution or wretched lives of the imprisoned pigs; the impunity with which laws were violated; or the political and administrative corruption in which the system thrives.

2009 Spring