Animals Archive

Aug 24, 2022 The United Nations, Animal Welfare and the Environment

Posted at 10:55h In Animal Well-being, Animals, Environment Well-being, Letter from the President, Public Awareness/Attitudes, Sustainability/Biodiversity, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil and Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

IntroductionA sustainable global future requires the world to address the welfare of not only people but animals and the environment. This view is also the founding premise for WellBeing International (WBI). A one-minute video produced by WBI includes the following message. "A responsible caretaker of...

Aug 24, 2022 Pet Dog Supply and Demand in the United States

Posted at 10:53h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, WellBeing News - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

To the surprise of many animal advocates, discussions are taking place this year on whether there may be too few dogs to support demand in the US. The campaign that began in the 1970s to reduce dog over-supply has been very successful. In 1973, approximately...

Jul 27, 2022 Considering Cats

Posted at 14:29h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, Tales of WellBeing - By Andrew Rowan

International Cat Day is celebrated every year on August 8. The day was created in 2002 by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, but the current custodian is the UK-based International Cat Care.WellBeing International (WBI) has published several newsletter articles about cat management. WBI will...

Dogs in Ukraine | Photo credit: Jason Weiss

Jul 27, 2022 How People are Coping with the Ukraine Disaster

Posted at 14:18h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Companion Animals, Human Well-being, Tales of WellBeing, Ukraine Rescue - By Kathleen Rowan

For the ordinary citizen living outside Ukraine and safely divorced from the direct effects of the conflict, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is an event that defies logic and leaves most feeling helpless. A few have taken active steps and volunteered to fight in Ukraine....

Pelican release by South Florida Wildlife Center

Jun 19, 2022 Wildlife Centers and Living in Harmony with Nature and Pelicans

Posted at 15:38h In Animal Sentience, Articles, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing, Well-being, Wild Animals - By Kathleen Rowan CEO, WellBeing International

The Wildlife CenterNestled in a high-density population area and abutting an international airport resides the South Florida Wildlife Center (Center), founded 53 years ago with a mission to rescue, rehabilitate, release and educate. The Center occupies a secluded tree-covered 4.1-acre site with a 1.2-acre "jurisdictional...

Lung on a microchip | Photo credit: Wyss Institute at Harvard University

Jun 19, 2022 New Technology, Better Science, and Fewer Animals

Posted at 12:46h In Animal Sentience, Animal Well-being, Articles, Laboratory Animals, Tales of WellBeing - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The concept of developing “alternatives” to laboratory animals in biomedical sciences is usually considered to have been launched by the1959 book, Principles of Humane Experimental Technique by William (Bill) Russell and Rex Burch. Russell and Burch did not explicitly use the term “alternatives.” They discussed...

Book Cover: The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka, PhD

Jun 19, 2022 The Mind of the Bee

Posted at 12:19h In Animal Sentience, Animal Well-being, Animals, Book Review, Sustainability/Biodiversity, Tales of WellBeing - By Lars Chittka, PhD

A journey into the alien mind of an insect Bees were once thought to be cleverly designed biorobots that can construct elaborate comb architectures, have labor divisions, and nest climate control. But all this engineering and complex behavior was considered to be delivered by reflex machines...

Jun 02, 2022 Wildlife Fertility Control: An Alternative to Lethal Management of Wildlife

Posted at 10:00h In Animal Sentience, Animal Well-being, Articles, WellBeing News, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The first international conference on wildlife fertility control was held in Philadelphia in 1987. Subsequently, approximately one such event has been organized every four years (the 9th conference being held 35 years after the first). In 2017 and 2022, the Botstiber Institute for Wildlife Fertility...

Fox and her kits | Credit: Fuchsfilm Helmut Seuetsch

Jun 02, 2022 The Well-Being of Wildlife

Posted at 09:53h In Animal Well-being, Articles, Letter from the President, WellBeing News, Wild Animals - By Andrew Rowan, DPhil

The Wild Animal Initiative is a project to improve the well-being of wildlife. The project recognizes that improving the well-being of wildlife is very challenging but is, nonetheless, taking a proactive approach to the issue. Several members of the Initiative were speakers at the recent...

Jun 02, 2022 The UK Badger Cull: “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics”

Posted at 09:45h In Animal Well-being, Articles, WellBeing International, Wild Animals - By Mark Jones BVSc, MSc (Stir), MSc (UL), MRCVS

In England, so often dubbed a nation of animal lovers, close to 177,000 native badgers, a protected species under UK law, have been shot under license since 2013, ostensibly to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis in cattle.There is no doubt that bovine tuberculosis (bTB)...