Animal Justice

Scientists say they can revive the extinct thylacine, commonly known as the Tasmanian tiger, within a decade, but does anybody want them to?

There is a plan to edit the genome of a related species — the dunnart — to resemble the thylacine's DNA, then use another relative as a surrogate to gestate the reincarnated baby thylacines.

The bill aims to completely phase out elephant captivity in Canada, and protect over 800 wild animal species from suffering in captivity. The Jane Goodall Act would also grant some animals limited legal standing. The Canadian legal system is notorious for denying animals legal standing, preventing them from having representation in court. The Jane Goodall Act would allow interested specially-appointed “animal advocates” to make arguments before a court about the best interests of animals, if a zoo or individual is convicted of keeping or breeding the animal illegally.

The Jane Goodall Act builds upon groundbreaking laws banning whale and dolphin captivity in Canada, which passed in 2019. It’s now a criminal offence to capture wild whales and dolphins from the ocean, confine them in tanks, breed them, or make them perform for entertainment.

Similar to the whale and dolphin bill, the Jane Goodall Act has faced many obstacles, primarily from Conservative Senate leader Don Plett. Senator Plett delayed the whale and dolphin bill for years in an attempt to kill it, and now appears to be doing the same thing to the Jane Goodall Act.

If approved, this bill would:

• Completely eliminate the import, breeding, and captivity of elephants.
• Restrict the import, keeping, and breeding of over 800 species of wild animals, including big cats, bears, many monkeys, wolves, sea lions, walruses, and dangerous reptiles like crocodiles and snakes, for individuals and most zoos.
• Empower the federal government to add more species to this list in the future.
• Provide limited legal standing to animals so that the court can consider their best interests in case of a conviction for violating anti-captivity laws.

What's going to happen to Otter 841 if they catch her?

Mr Connor said that once captured, the otter would be evaluated by aquarium vets.

She'll be put into a zoo or an aquarium where she can be "an ambassador for her species", he said.

However, if she harms a human, wildlife officials have said that would consider euthanising her.

In 2016, Loblaw announced it would stop selling eggs from hens confined in cages in all their stores, including Loblaws grocers and Shoppers Drug Mart. The transition was supposed to be completed by 2025. But seven long years after the promise was made, the company says it won’t meet this deadline, and refuses to share a new timeline for stamping caged cruelty out of its supply chain.

Animal Justice, our supporters, and thousands of concerned citizens have been reaching out to Loblaw Companies about their failed cage-free promise for months. But the only response from Loblaw has been to point toward their President’s Choice house brand of eggs, which is already cage-free. They won’t share any information about all the other brands they continue to sell from hens confined in tiny cages.

Over the past weeks, Loblaw brands have been blocking people from some of their social media accounts, and deleting customer questions about the company’s cage-free policy. This secrecy falls short of Loblaw’s promises on their website, stating they’re committed to “transparency, accountability and sound corporate governance” and to have a “customer-centric and values-based approach to decision making.” While this is not what we’d expect from a grocery leader, it shows that our message is being heard.

Join us in demanding Loblaw keeps their promise and go cage-free.

!protestors with megaphone and dressed as chickens in front of drugstore. 2 people in a cage

Brave souls took their turn at racing towards a camel, sticking a piece of duct tape on its fur, then racing back to their starting position before returning to the camel to retrieve the tape and finally racing back to the judge to complete their run.

The unpredictable nature of camels and dexterous legs that can kick in any direction delivered a painful price for participants who were slow on their feet.

"My tactic was to try and get it in the front, slow it down and tag its front shoulder and, of course … try not to get kicked in the head," contestant Dylan said.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A California law approved by voters that promises to get breeding pigs out of narrow cages that prevent them from standing or turning will finally take effect Saturday, after years of delays and warnings that the rules could lead to price spikes and pork shortages.

But it will be six months before California grocery shoppers can be sure that pork chops they buy under the new law will be from a pig whose mother wasn't confined in a so-called gestation crate.

That's because while the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the law, the state recently agreed to allow pork slaughtered before July 1 to be sold in California markets and restaurants for the rest of the year. That decision gives farmers and grocery stores time to adjust. But it's exasperating to supporters of the new rules that the effective implementation of the law would again be delayed — four years after voters approved it.

Ending the live export trade was high on our list of priorities when the Australian Federation of Animal Societies was founded. The trade was then relatively new and the number of sheep exported, especially to the Middle East, was growing rapidly. On every ship, some sheep succumbed to the heat, confinement, and stress of the long voyage. They were the lucky ones because they avoided even greater agony after reaching their destination.

Almost 40 years, and many broken commitments later, the ALP promised that it would phase out the live export of sheep by sea. In line with that promise, the Albanese government has appointed an independent panel to consider how and when to phase out the export of live sheep by sea. For the sheep, and for Australia’s reputation, that day cannot come too soon.

When the bill was first introduced, it lacked concrete measures to phase out animal toxicity testing. Animal Justice and partner organizations collaborated with lawmakers to amend the bill by including a roadmap for transitioning away from using animals in toxicity testing. The legislation now requires the government to support and implement cruelty-free alternatives to toxicity testing on animals, empowers the government to make regulations about how non-animal testing should be done, and mandates that the Ministers of the Environment and Health publish a plan within the next two years to promote animal-free toxicity testing methods.

“This is truly a momentous day for animals in Canada,” Animal Justice director of legal advocacy Kaitlyn Mitchell said. “Toxicity testing is the most harmful and painful use of animals in scientific research and involves experiments that often fall under the most severe category of harm that animals can experience. We are seeing a global shift away from toxicity testing on animals, and with this new law, Canada can finally catch up to jurisdictions like the US and EU, which already have strong legal tools to phase out these horrific experiments.”

The USDA must approve all animal welfare claims on meat and poultry labels before products can be sold. But unlike “organic” claims, which are verified in person by government regulators, animal welfare claims are substantiated with paperwork submitted to the USDA.

The USDA doesn’t have the regulatory authority to check animal welfare claims on farms, said Sandra Eskin, the USDA’s deputy undersecretary for food safety.

“There are plenty of companies out there that are following the law and many that are not, and that’s just not fair,” Eskin said.

Eskin said the USDA plans to update its guidelines to require more documentation from companies making animal welfare claims. It will also strongly encourage companies to hire third-party verification groups, such as Human Farm Animal Care, a non-profit organization in Virginia that certifies animal welfare claims.

A total of 152 koalas were put down after contracting a disease from a nearby American-owned aluminum smelter.

The company recently admitted to killing the marsupials after learning the creatures were deteriorating from exposure to fluoride - a waste product of smelting.

The industry giant found the large group of marsupials living in the 17 hectares closest to the smelter were suffering from the effects of fluorosis.

The 152 worst-affected koalas - about 60 per cent of those assessed were euthanised and the forest was closed off from the public in March.

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Commercial kangaroo shooters are required to adhere to standards of humane killing, set out by a national code of practice that was revised in 2020.

The code requires them to be correctly licenced and they are required to kill each kangaroo with a single shot to the head. They need to ensure the animal is dead, before targeting another one.

But hunting takes place after dusk, which makes it hard for even the most experienced shooter to get a clean single shot to the head.

The most contentious issue is the killing of female kangaroos with joeys and what happens to their offspring when the mothers are killed.