Critical insights at the intersection of animals and politics
Captive and Wild Bears Throughout the World Killed for Bladders and Bile Washington, D.C. — Today, Animal Wellness Action, and the Animal Wellness Foundation lauded U.S. Senators John Kennedy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., for introducing legislation to stop the exploitation of bears, seeking to end the killing of the animals for their gall bladders. … Read more
Consumer choice. What is more apple pie than that? We don’t even think about it. Whether clothes, cars, or cosmetics, we pick the brand and shop for the deal. It’s called the free market, and in elementary school we learn that the strength of our economic system is based on the interplay between competition and … Read more
Animal welfare leaders argue that the government of Guam should not act as a “pass-through enterprise” or a “go-between” for cockfighters breaking the law WASHINGTON, D.C. — Shipping records obtained from the territorial Department of Agriculture revealed that there were 137 individuals who imported nearly 9,000 fighting birds onto Guam over the last three years. It is … Read more
Fighting a Diabolical Government Plan to Round Up Tens of Thousands of Wild Horses and Burros Our iconic American wild horses face an existential threat from the Bureau of Land Management and its excessive focus on round-ups and removals and its inattention to fertility control. In 2020, the agency may attempt to round-up and remove … Read more
The wildfires sweeping the grasslands and climbing the trees in Australia are not just hurting “the continent.” They are charring the plants and burning up the animals. It’s a frightening and apocalyptic scene, vividly dramatizing that forest fires that are typically regenerative to ecosystems have in this case morphed into a life-denying, runaway infernos. A … Read more
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) introduced the Opportunities for Fairness in Farming (OFF) Act to create a system of financial controls and transparency to reform USDA’s agricultural checkoff programs. Earlier this year U.S. Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced identical companion legislation … Read more
In the wake of a major investigation that exposed hundreds of illegal cockfighting transports shipped from cockfighters in 15 states to Guam, Governor Lou Leon Guerrero of the Pacific Island territory announced that she’d confer with her legal advisors on the subject and decide whether to act on the request by Animal Wellness Action (AWA) … Read more
Lions in Africa and tigers in Asia are in peril in their native habitats — the victims of retribution killing, the trade in their parts (tiger penises and lion bones), human encroachment and habitat fragmentation, and, in the case of the lions, trophy hunting. But in the United States, they are strangely abundant not only at … Read more
The non-profit organizations obtained live-animal shipping records showing more than 500 illegal shipments of fighting birds WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cockfighters from the U.S. mainland made more than 500 illegal transports of fighting birds to customers on Guam, according to an analysis by the Animal Wellness Foundation and Animal Wellness Action of 2500 pages of live-animal shipping records … Read more
It’s an axiom of our age that the pace of change is breakneck. When I started college in the 1980s, I completed my papers using a typewriter, but by the end, those machines were in the closet attracting dust bunnies. PCs claimed their former territory on our work desks and cubicles. The internet was once … Read more