Animal Rights Week Marks Progress
This years’ awareness week was a chance for celebration not just concern…
‘Animal Rights Awareness Week’ platforms the rights and welfare requirements of both wild and domesticated animals annually. This year, it took place from the 17th to the 23rd of June and gave activists, NGOs and the general public another chance to spotlight and discuss important campaigns around the world. Amid all the prevailing gloom in the news, let’s take a moment to enjoy some significant progress achieved for animal rights in the US as we pass 2024’s half-way mark.
🎉 Below the federal level, America continues to get animal rights in a better state (see what I did there?) with new laws protecting lives in farms and labs:
January saw California's Proposition 12 take full effect, mandating greater space for animals like mother pigs, hens and calves can to move more freely within conventional farming set ups. Cage-Free Laws were also passed this year in Oregon, Washington and Nevada which make it illegal to produce or sell eggs from caged hens.
California has banned the testing of chemicals like pesticides, industrial chemicals and food additives on animals. Oregon has also prohibited the sale of cosmetics tested on animals, a move high-fived by new state transparency requirements for research with primates and contributing to a broader overall trend across the US this year towards cruelty-free products.
In January, research facilities in Maryland paid into a new fund that provides grants to state scientists working on non-animal testing methods. The new law requires facilities to contribute to the ‘Human Relevant Research Fund’ annually. Since 2023, the FDA has unlocked millions of dollars in funding for supporting alternatives to animal testing.
The FDA are underlining this commitment with a sort-of-catchy ‘three R’ motto - ‘replace, reduce and refine’. Look out for more progress coming down the track for domesticated animals, with New York’s ban on the sale of dogs, cats and rabbits in pet stores going into effect in December.
🌟 US Wildlife has also received additional protection:
Protection of more species from inhumane forms of hunting and population control has been enacted in Oregon, Illinois and New York this year. New laws ban wildlife killing contests and protect coyotes, foxes, and bobcats from meeting unnecessarily cruel deaths. Illinois also introduced a ban on public contact with bears and primates to reduce risks and exploitation.
At a federal level, several new acts have come into force or been updated, including: the Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing new species as threatened, adding more molluscs and plants to the list, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) designating more habitats as critical for endangered species.
New amendments to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) also strengthened protections for migratory birds, introducing stricter penalties for preventable bird deaths caused by industry. In other good news, wildlife refuges received increased funding this year from the USFW for habitat projects improving conditions for waterfowl and migratory birds.
This week, the USFWS reported significant progress in their efforts to recover the Red Wolf population in North Carolina. Their 2023-2024 release plan, which concludes this month, involved the successful pairing and release of red wolves in the wild.
🌎 What do animal rights have to do with sustainability?
How we treat domesticated animals used in farming and research is a bellwether for how we view and understand our fellow travellers on this spinning rock. Greater respect for animals we directly use represents a shift in perspective which escapes these enclosures to inform our relationship to animals in the wild.
How we treat wildlife is itself a bellwether for how we view our own place in the biosphere. Appreciating our vast impact on wild species, and their habitats, goes hand in hand with our dawning Anthropocene realisation of the responsibility which comes with this outsized impact.
Not only appreciating our power to effectively determine what biodiversity exists alongside us but also the future of the natural systems we rely on for sustainable human success.
Hi... You might like this, as a short story, about the evolutionary triumph of rats.
https://audiopervert.substack.com/p/the-evolutionary-triumph-of-rattus