Press Releases

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) announced today that it has been awarded an A+ rating by CharityWatch, a leading independent charity-rating organization, in its recently released Winter 2014-2015 Charity Rating Guide & Watchdog Report. Of...

Documents obtained by the Washington, DC-based Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) reveal that a Norwegian whaling company, Lofothval, has sought permission to ship up to 22,000 pounds (10 metric tons) of whale meat to Iceland. The...

International experts in the development and operation of responsible whale watching are conducting a three-day workshop in St. Vincent and the Grenadines from October 22 to 24 2014, to provide training to existing and prospective...

In recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) has partnered with the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence (NRCDV) to provide copies of its children’s publications, Kamie Cat's Terrible Night...

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) announced today that it has sent a written appeal to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), criticizing and requesting revision of the trade association’s guidelines for the care and handling...

The Animal Welfare Institute officially announced today the winners of its annual Christine Stevens Wildlife Award. Established in 2006, the Christine Stevens Wildlife Award provides grants of up to $10,000 to help fund innovative strategies...

Today’s statement by Virgin that it intends to continue to work with aquariums that confine whales and dolphins (cetaceans) in captivity for public entertainment has disappointed wildlife experts from leading animal welfare and conservation charities...

Our children are less likely to see monarch butterflies, bumble bees, and a host of other once-common wildlife species due to farm pesticides, declining ocean health, climate change, and dirty energy production, according to a...

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James B. Comey officially announced a historic change in the identification and reporting of animal cruelty crime statistics. The FBI will now report animal cruelty crimes as a separate...

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and WDC—Whale and Dolphin Conservation are calling on the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) to help protect whales from hunting in Iceland.

A formal diplomatic protest, known as a démarche, was today delivered to the Icelandic government in Reykjavik. The top-level protest registered countries’ “strong opposition” to Iceland’s continued whaling, particularly of endangered fin whales.

A new report today calls for the international community and vested commercial interests to take tough action to end Iceland’s ongoing slaughter of endangered fin whales. Slayed in Iceland: The commercial hunting and international trade...

A new poll commissioned by leading anti-whaling organizations, Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), Humane Society International (HSI), International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), OceanCare, Pro Wildlife, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC)...

Today, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) and WildEarth Guardians (Guardians), represented by the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC), notified the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Wildlife Services program of their intent to sue over...

Two dozen conservation and animal-welfare groups sent a letter today urging the US Fish and Wildlife Service to complete its plan to protect the northern long-eared bat, a species found primarily in the eastern and...

The proposed expansions of the orca enclosures, while a small improvement from the existing tanks, are nonetheless inadequate to meet the welfare needs of these animals due to their size, intelligence, means of communication, and...

Today the National Marine Fisheries Service announced a positive 60-day finding on a petition to designate the Sakhalin Bay-Amur River beluga whale population in the Sea of Okhotsk, Russia, as depleted under the US Marine...

On July 10, the Senate failed to secure the required 60 votes for passage of the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act. This bill, opposed by the Animal Welfare Institute and countless other animal protection and conservation groups...

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is taking part next week in the 77th Annual Conference of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) to call attention to how youth and family violence...

One day after a broad coalition of national animal and conservation groups urged the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to terminate its contract with the US Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the board assented to...