Animal Wellness Action Blog

Critical insights into issues at the intersection of animals and politics​

State’s largest violator of ban on selling kangaroo parts changes course after law enforcement pays a visit Los Angeles, CA — Niky’s Sports, California’s largest soccer goods retailer, has stopped selling kangaroo skin soccer shoes (or “cleats”) through its eight stores, adhering to a state law banning commerce in kangaroo body parts after long being out … Read more

chained dog

Effort aimed at enhancing enforcement of federal anti-cruelty laws Conduct a Google or Bing search for “animal cruelty” and you will see a cascade of news items on cruelty cases that will both repel you and test your capacity to understand the behavior of other members of your species.  A torrent of reports of organized … Read more

Washington, D.C. — In a major federal legislative anti-cruelty initiative, U.S. Congressmen Joe Neguse (D-CO-02), David Joyce (R-OH-14), and Steve Cohen (D-TN-09), introduced the Animal Cruelty Enforcement (ACE) Act, H.R. 1016, a bill they forged in cooperation with Animal Wellness Action, the Animal Wellness Foundation, and the Center for a Humane Economy to step up federal … Read more

Decision Sticks with Trend of Perpetuating Tennessee Walking Horse Abuse Washington, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia remanded a case back to the United States Department of Agriculture for a new hearing before agency Administrative Law Judges in the case of Joe Fleming Stables v. U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. … Read more

Tennessee Walking Horses need your help to end “soring,” and the artificial high-step known as the “big lick.” A New York Times headline on September 4, 2006, read “Horse Show Ends in Uproar Over U.S.D.A Inspections” reporting on the failure of the judges at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration to crown a World Grand Champion in … Read more

Group Applauds Lundberg Bill After Major Investigation Reveals Tennesseans Among Top Traffickers of Fighting Birds to Guam, Mexico, and the Philippines Washington, D.C. — Today, leaders at Animal Wellness Action (AWA) and the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF) applauded Tennessee State Senator Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, for announcing that he’ll carry legislation this year in Nashville to crack … Read more

Las Vegas, NV — Today, Animal Wellness Action (AWA) and the Animal Wellness Foundation (AWF) announced a $5,000 reward for information resulting in the successful prosecution of any individual for violating state or federal law (7 U.S.C. § 2156) against animal fighting. The announcement follows a recent raid in Las Vegas where 300 gamecocks were … Read more

Nike’s kangaroo-leather soccer shoes drive massive wildlife kill in Australia’s Outback By a long shot, the public-private scheme to kill kangaroos in Australia is the biggest commercial slaughter of native wildlife in the world. Despite all the pretense and rationalizations hitched to it by proponents of this open-air slaughter, it’s motivated by profit and the … Read more

Congressmen Salud Carbajal and Brian Fitzpatrick Say ‘No More Killing Kangaroos for Athletic Shoes’ Washington, D.C. —  U.S. Representatives Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., this week introduced the Kangaroo Protection Act to ban the sale of kangaroo body parts in the United States. The bill aims to curb the massive trade in kangaroo … Read more

Even though mink are more susceptible to COVID-19 than any other non-human mammal, and hundreds of thousands of mink have been infected by the virus at these factory farms from Lithuania to Spain to Michigan to Utah, American political leaders and scientists are treating mink farming with the same sort of inattention that they gave … Read more