Animal Welfare Institute
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI)
is a non-profit charitable organization founded in 1951 with the goal of reducing pain and fear inflicted on animals by humans. Its legislative division, the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), pushes for the passage of laws that reflect this purpose.
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[edit] Campaigns and Goals
In the organization’s early years, its particular emphasis was on the needs of animals used for experimentation. AWI expanded the scope of its work in the following decades to address many other areas of animal suffering.
One major current area of emphasis is factory farms. AWI speaks out against this cruelty and promotes small, humane independent family farms that follow the organization's animal welfare and husbandry standards. Other efforts include ending the use of steel-jaw leghold traps for catching fur-bearing animals, improving the lives of animals in laboratories and promoting the development of non-animal testing methods.
AWI representatives regularly attend meetings of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to fight for the protection of threatened and endangered species. They also attend meetings of the International Whaling Commission to fight to preserve the ban on commercial whaling and work to protect all marine life against the proliferation of anthropogenic ocean noise.
Marine biologist and nature writer Rachel Carson joined the Animal Welfare Institute Advisory Board in 1960 just prior to the release of her groundbreaking book Silent Spring.
[edit] Government and Legal Affairs Division
In our nation’s capital, there are lobbyists for every industry imaginable—agriculture, energy, tobacco, defense—but what about the animals? Who lobbies for them? In 1951, it was illegal for non-profit tax-exempt organizations to engage in such activities. “We couldn’t do any substantial amount of lobbying and keep our tax-exempt status,” explained Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) founder Christine Stevens, who is referred to as the "Mother of the Animal Protection Movement." Her solution? To form an organization that didn’t require a tax-exempt status, one that would inform Senators, Representatives and the public about animal issues and work to pass laws to protect them. The Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL) became the first organization founded in the United States specifically to lobby on behalf of animals.
The year was 1955 and SAPL was the first of its kind. If legislators wanted to know more about issues pertaining to humane slaughter, leghold traps or endangered species, they simply contacted SAPL. Because of changes in tax laws, in 2003, SAPL merged with the Animal Welfare Institute bringing together two of the nations oldest and leading animal protection organizations.
For over 50 years AWI and SAPL have worked for the successful adoption of over 15 federal laws, including the Animal Welfare Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Humane Slaughter Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act. AWI continues to defend existing laws, oppose bills that threaten animals and work for new protective measures, following through after they are enacted to ensure sound regulation and sufficient funds for enforcement. Current efforts include pushing for the passage of bills to ban horse slaughter, end the sale of random source dogs and cats by dealers and prohibit the use of the steel-jaw leghold trap.
Additionally, to highlight Members of Congress’ stances on animal welfare legislation, AWI created a website tracking and ranking system called the Compassion Index (CI). Available online at Compassion Index, the frequently updated electronic tally system rates legislators based on their involvement or lack thereof on certain animal welfare measures.
[edit] Animal Welfare Approved
AWI launched its Animal Welfare Approved (AWA) standards program in Fall 2006, with husbandry requirements for beef cattle and calves, pigs, sheep, ducks, turkeys and rabbits. Standards for additional species will follow.
Only family farms can earn the AWA seal. Families who own, labor on and earn a meaningful livelihood from their farms have a true commitment and connection to their animals that is lost on factory farms managed by distant, corporate owners and run by hired hands. AWI strives to revitalize a culture of independent family farms, in which a humane ethic can be passed on to future generations.
The welfare of farmed animals is related to the extent to which they can adapt without suffering to environments designed by humans. Both the science and the philosophy of animal welfare recognize that animals have a mental life as well as bodily condition (health and vigor) that can be affected by how humans shelter and treat them.
The “Five Freedoms” are used to describe both the needs of domesticated animals and the duties of care owed them. The Five Freedoms have a long history, having first been described in a scientific report to the British government in 1965 and enhanced by the Carpenter Committee in 1980. They underlie the AWA program, reflecting the goals that the standards strive to achieve. They provide a useful benchmark by which farmers can evaluate the outcomes of their husbandry.
The Five Freedoms are: freedom from hunger, thirst, and malnutrition; freedom from physical and thermal discomfort; freedom from pain, injury, and disease (including parasitical infections); freedom to express normal behavior; and freedom from fear and distress.
[edit] The Albert Schweitzer Medal
In 1951, Dr. Albert Schweitzer gave AWI permission to strike a medal in his honor, to be presented for outstanding achievement in the advancement of animal welfare.
In granting his permission, Dr. Schweitzer wrote, “I would never have believed that my philosophy, which incorporates in our ethics a compassionate attitude toward all creatures, would be noticed and recognized in my lifetime.”
In 1954, a gold replica of the Medal was presented to Dr. Schweitzer by Dr. Charles Joy in Oslo, Norway, where he had gone to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.
Since first being awarded in 1954, AWI's Albert Schweitzer Medal has become the highest form of recoginition in the animal protection movement. International figures such as Dr. Jane Goodall, Rachel Carson, Astrid Lindgren and Senator Robert Dole have received this honor for their work on behalf of animals.
To spread his message of compassion to children, AWI published The Boy Who Loved All Living Things: The Imaginary Childhood Journal of Albert Schweitzer,written and illustrated by Sheila Hamanaka. Inspired by Dr. Albert Schweitzer’s youth, the book teaches young children that animals are friends who should be treated with the utmost respect.
