Andrew Rowan, DPhil Archive

May 28, 2021 Cosmetic Testing on Animals: EU Takes a Step Back

Posted at 10:23h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Letter from the President, Research Animals, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The European Union (EU) was the first major economic and political union to address cosmetics testing on animals. This legislative initiative took decades to come into effect. The path started in 1993 when the first EU Directive addressing the issue was passed. However, the Directive...

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May 28, 2021 South Africa Changing Direction on the “Sustainable” Use of Wildlife?

Posted at 10:22h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Conservation, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

On May 2 this year, the South African Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, released a High Level Panel (HLP) report on the sustainable use of wildlife involving the management, breeding, hunting, trade and handling of elephant, lion, leopard and rhino.  In...

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May 10, 2021 Farm Animals, Alternative Proteins, Economics & Sustainability

Posted at 10:41h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Food & Agriculture, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

It is now commonplace for any new report on global sustainability to recommend that people should eat fewer animal products to help address climate change, biodiversity losses, personal health and several other challenges facing the world today. The Dasgupta Review (see related article in this...

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May 10, 2021 The Dasgupta Review and the Economics of Biodiversity

Posted at 10:40h In Articles, Biodiversity, Global Awareness, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Every now and again, a publication or report comes along that changes how we think about life.  In the animal space, Ruth Harrison’s Animal Machines (1964) was such a publication. In the environmental space, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962) and the Club of Rome’s Limits...

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May 10, 2021 The Wolf Pendulum in the United States

Posted at 10:30h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Human-Animal Interaction, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The Idaho legislature has just sent a bill to Governor Brad Little’s desk that would authorize the killing of up to 90% of Idaho’s estimated 1,500 wolves. This bill represents a swing of the wolf pendulum back to the early part of the 20th century...

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Mar 30, 2021 Rhino Decline Shock

Posted at 13:56h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Conservation, Letter from the President, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The Kruger National Park in South Africa is home to the largest wild rhino population in the world. But a 2019 census documenting a dramatic decline in the Kruger rhino population in just ten years has shocked rhino conservation organizations. The park last conducted a...

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Feb 26, 2021 “Making Peace with Nature”

Posted at 08:57h In Articles, Environment Well-being, Global Awareness, Letter from the President, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

This past month, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) issued a 168-page publication entitled Making Peace with Nature. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, comments in a Foreword that “Humanity is waging war on nature” and “Making peace with nature is the defining task of the...

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Feb 26, 2021 Companion Animal Demographics: When Are They Good Enough?

Posted at 08:48h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Population & Demographics, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

There is minimal careful analysis of gross companion animal demographics and of the trends in animal shelter intake and outcome. The best current estimate of the USA dog and cat population is 135 million from a survey conducted every five years. Several other national surveys...

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Feb 26, 2021 Revisiting the Cat Predation Issue

Posted at 08:30h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Companion Animals - Cats, WellBeing News - By John Hadidian, PhD and Andrew Rowan, DPhil

In 2013, a paper in the journal Nature Communications appeared that estimated that cat predation in the United States led to an estimated death of 1.3 - 4.0 billion birds every year. This large range in the predation estimate was due to the big uncertainties...

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Jan 29, 2021 Drug Company Research and Animal Use

Posted at 11:27h In Animals in Our World, Articles, Letter from the President, Research Animals, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

Over the years, the use of laboratory animals by drug companies and other commercial laboratories has elicited more than its share of criticism. In the late 1970s, animal advocates turned their attention to the testing of cosmetics and personal care products on animals, with particular...

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