ESGBERT/base_data · Datasets at Hugging Face

sentence stringlengths 1 23.5k ⌀
A rule enacted by the USDA in to a petition filed by AWI requires inspections prior to export to ensure the animals meet the World Organisation for Animal Health’s fitness-to-travel standards.
no especially egregious mortality incidents have taken place.
However, the incompleteness of the records received means further investigation is warranted.
A United Nations Environment Programme report, Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, identifies major trends driving the increasing emergence of zoonotic diseases— including increased demand for animal protein, a rise in intense and unsustainable farming, and increased use and exploitation of wildlife.
The report also calls on nations to adopt animal welfare standards for the care, housing, and transport of live animals along the entire supply chain to reduce disease transmission.
The report lists the types of research for which laboratory dogs should no longer be used and encourages a shift toward clinical trials with companion dogs who naturally develop some of the same diseases as humans—dogs who might benefit from the research in which they participate.
It also recommended funding independent literature searches that emphasize replacement of dogs, not just a reduction in numbers.
S P R I N G volume 70, number 1 Cuttlefish can delay gratification.
In an adapted version of the famous “marshmallow test,” most cuttlefish chose to wait to receive a higher-value treat rather than consuming a lower-value treat immediately.
Those willing to delay longer were also quickest at learning a discrimination task.
This is only the third species (after humans and chimpanzees) in which a link between self-control and intelligence has been shown—yet more evidence that cuttlefish, along with other cephalopods, are cognitively complex.
research facility rather than be moved to more species-appropriate living space at the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana.
As the NIH gives a host of excuses for denying sanctuary to certain chimps, the fate of over a hundred retired research chimps held at two Texas research facilities remains under review.
Greyhound racing is rounding its final turn in the United States.
Florida, the erstwhile capital of the notoriously abusive sport, shuttered its last track at the end of 2120 state overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits betting on live dog races.
Texas closed its one remaining greyhound track in June 2020.
That would leave West Virginia, with two active tracks, as the last holdout.
Sadly, most are raised in industrial facilities, packed together in dimly lit warehouses and subject to painful mutilations of their beaks and toes to prevent feather pecking, cannibalism, and other stress induced aggressive behaviors.
Higher-welfare alternatives exist, but deceptive labels on conventionally grown birds make it hard for consumers to analyze animal welfare claims.
AWI’s free guide to label claims on meat, egg, and dairy products can help.
CARI’MAM comprises marine mammal stakeholders and experts in the Wider Caribbean and provides countries with a way to share information, combine resources, and cooperate on marine mammal conservation issues.
worked alongside representatives of governments to increase protection for the world’s cetaceans.
Joe Exotic had been sentenced to prison before the series even aired.
Exotic and continued the animal abuse, lost his exhibitor’s license and faces a hefty fine or jail.
Tim Stark lost his roadside zoo in Indiana and was arrested after hiding animals from authorities.
general with wildlife trafficking, conspiracy, and animal cruelty.
Tracking wild wolves is vital for understanding factors that influence their interactions with livestock.
Radio collars are traditionally used, but are expensive and time consuming.
the movements of wolf packs can be tracked noninvasively via devices that record and triangulate the pack’s location based on their howls.
The exact number is unknown, as rodents are not covered under the Animal Welfare Act, the primary federal law for the protection of research animals.
If rodents were covered, the number in use would be reported and the animals would benefit from the law’s stipulations regarding housing, handling, and use (including consideration of alternatives to any potentially painful procedures).
The ability to exercise control over one’s environment is recognized as an important component of good welfare.
Animals in research, however, rarely have such control, even over features designed to enrich.
Scientists in Finland recently provided white-faced saki monkeys a way to switch audiovisual stimuli on or off themselves— essentially handing them the remote.
The monkeys showed clear preferences for certain sights (earthworms over forest scenes) and sounds (traffic over rain).
Such “on-demand” enrichment can readily be adapted to other species.
An AWI Christine Stevens Wildlife Award helped scientists study whether acoustic signals might steer birds away from collisions with buildings.
When the researchers broadcast sounds in front of tall communication towers in the Atlantic migratory flyway of Virginia, birds flew slower and gave the structures a wider berth.
Creating such an “acoustic lighthouse” could reduce collision risks associated with many human-made structures, such as wind turbines and tall buildings, potentially saving billions of birds annually.
In the United Kingdom, gray squirrels are an invasive species, badly outcompeting native red squirrels.
They have been subject to lethal control for decades, but immunocontraception is showing promise as a humane, nonlethal way to control gray squirrels in the country.
Researchers placed contraceptive-laced baits in traps or hoppers accessible only by the larger, stronger grays.
Four days of baiting was sufficient to treat over squirrels in a given woodlot.
A rare winter storm hit Texas in February burst pipelines, and water shortages.
Freezing temperatures took a heavy toll on humans, domestic animals, and even wildlife.
When approximately turtles washed up on South Padre Island, a local nonprofit group stepped in to coordinate the rescue effort, with support from AWI and others.
The animals were gathered, allowed to warm up and rehabilitate, and released back into the Gulf of Mexico.
Thus far, the Biden administration has shown a welcome inclination to undo much of the prior administration’s efforts to sabotage laws and policies meant to safeguard wildlife and habitat.
President Biden’s early executive orders (e.g., halting oil and gas activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, establishing a bold vision for conserving habitat) are heartening, but it will take an ongoing record of truly courageous leadership to adequately confront the alarming crises that wildlife and the planet face.
of tar to wash ashore along the Israeli and southern Lebanese coastline with devastating impact—covering beaches and rocky shorelines, coating turtles and birds, and killing fish and other marine life.
Rapid and organized response helped alleviate some of the devastation.
To aid this effort, AWI provided an emergency grant that was used for essential cleaning equipment and supplies to aid in the rehabilitation of rescued animals.
the Wider Caribbean (SPAW), held virtually in March and April 2021.
Unfortunately, technical difficulties led to disjointed sessions and stymied progress.
better communication and collaboration among those working on marine mammal protection across the Caribbean.
“Waif” gopher tortoises (those injured, collected illegally, or of unknown origins) could be released into the wild to augment declining populations of the species in the southeastern United States.
But concern over introduced diseases has been a barrier to such releases.
researchers evaluated the viability of releasing waifs into the wild.
They found that over percent of the released waifs survived, most remained near their release location, and disease transmission was low—all extremely encouraging signs for a humane alternative to life-long captivity or euthanasia for these animals while aiding species conservation.
A raccoon in Tennessee was euthanized after spending untold days in agony dragging around a “dog-proof” trap that had nearly amputated the animal’s leg.
Unlike conventional traps, dog proof traps feature a metal tube surrounding the trap’s spring-loaded bars, which is supposed to prevent nontarget animals from getting trapped.
Wildlife managers claim they are more humane, but for those animals who are captured—especially raccoons with their hypersensitive front paws—these traps are no less vicious than other leghold devices.
Ships carrying hundreds of thousands of animals were stalled in and around the Suez Canal for several days in March ship Ever Given ran aground, blocking all traffic.
The incident illustrated the precariousness of such journeys.
Ocean travel is hard on animals to begin with, and delays can deplete food supplies quickly, potentially causing immense animal suffering.
Given scientific advancements in artificial insemination, refrigeration, and air transport, shipping animals via sea vessel seems increasingly unnecessary.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended in March contiguous United States continue to be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The recommendation applies to the population as a whole, however, not to individual ecosystems.
A study funded by an AWI Refinement Grant found evidence that playtime for mice in research reduces anxiety.
Mice—even those raised in standard, mostly barren “shoebox” cages—responded well when provided early life access to play areas.
They subsequently ventured more freely into novel spaces and displayed less physiological evidence of stress.
They were even willing to forego food rewards in order to spend more time in play areas.
Senior Staff Attorney, Terrestrial Wildlife Erin Sutherland, Esq.
In cases in which you have specific wishes about the disposition of your bequest, we suggest you discuss such provisions with your attorney.
8 Voting Rights 12 Reproductive Freedom 14 Immigrants’ Rights 15 LGBTQ Equality 18 Criminal Law Reform 20 Empowering the Next Generation 22 Financial Summary 24 How You Can Help In 2021, our first order of business was to support and rebuild communities that were most damaged by the Trump administration’s policies, and to work toward undoing the many harms these communities have faced since our country’s founding.
As the pages of this report reflect, that work is far from over.
This year also marks the beginning of the ACLU’s second century of defending civil liberties and civil rights.
Mindful of that legacy, we are redoubling our efforts to close the gap between the America that was promised and the America that is.
We are committed to dismantling the structures that perpetuate systemic racism and inequity in housing, access to the ballot, law enforcement, and more.
We will continue to push the Biden administration and Congress to act on key issues, including protecting and expanding voting rights, student loan debt cancellation, fair housing, and reparations.
Right now, our nation has a window of opportunity in which we can deepen and expand protections of civil liberties and civil rights.
We know this window won’t stay open forever, but no matter what lies ahead, we will hold onto that vista of freedom and fight for its permanence—together.
Executive Director After four years battling the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties and civil rights at the federal level, in we were prepared for a wave of relentless and even more aggressive attempts to erase voting rights, abortion rights, and transgender equality at the state level.
This year alone, lawmakers introduced a barrage of blocking access to abortion, and more than 100 bills restricting transgender rights.
As you’ll read in the pages of this report, the ACLU was a steady force for justice throughout the year, using strategic litigation and advocacy whenever and wherever possible—wielding the power of our affiliates in all D.C., and Puerto Rico.
We were also victorious in our landmark First Amendment case before the Supreme Court, which safeguarded the free speech rights of million public school students.
civil liberties, and the challenges ahead are significant.
But no matter who occupies the White House or the state house, we know that we can rely on our dedicated supporters, activists, volunteers, and coalition partners to get us closer to a nation where “We the People” truly means all of us.
, the Texas Attorney General’s office claimed that there were cases against people who allegedly committed voting offenses in the 2020 election.
All were unproven allegations and represented a fraction of ballots cast last year.
This inflation of case numbers fueled the myth of widespread voter fraud in order to lay the groundwork to further criminalize voting in Texas.
After months of partisan struggle, state lawmakers eventually passed a bill that raises even more barriers to voting for communities of color, people with disabilities, and people who vote by mail.
Those false claims would also be a harbinger of the hundreds of other voter suppression bills introduced across the country in the spring and summer.
This post-election backlash against civil liberties in the states defined the ACLU’s work this year, cutting across every element of our mission: voting rights, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom, free speech, and so much more.
In legislation seeking to undermine the very freedoms that define our democracy.
Defending Voting Rights In Georgia, the ACLU banded together with the NAACP to take on a slew of draconian laws designed to disenfranchise Black voters after a historic turnout in the 2020 election.
Across the country, we’ve employed litigation strategies to stop hundreds of other voter suppression laws, including in Indiana, Minnesota, and Montana.
Safeguarding Abortion We joined forces with abortion providers in Texas after the legislature flouted Roe v. Wade by enacting the most extreme abortion restriction in the country.
We’re challenging the law, which bans abortions at six weeks (a time when most people don’t know they’re pregnant) and criminalizes the act of performing or aiding an abortion.
FOR DEMOCRACY This year has been one of great hope and alarm.

A rule enacted by the USDA in to a petition filed by AWI requires inspections prior to export to ensure the animals meet the World Organisation for Animal Health’s fitness-to-travel standards.

no especially egregious mortality incidents have taken place.

However, the incompleteness of the records received means further investigation is warranted.

A United Nations Environment Programme report, Preventing the Next Pandemic: Zoonotic diseases and how to break the chain of transmission, identifies major trends driving the increasing emergence of zoonotic diseases— including increased demand for animal protein, a rise in intense and unsustainable farming, and increased use and exploitation of wildlife.

The report also calls on nations to adopt animal welfare standards for the care, housing, and transport of live animals along the entire supply chain to reduce disease transmission.

The report lists the types of research for which laboratory dogs should no longer be used and encourages a shift toward clinical trials with companion dogs who naturally develop some of the same diseases as humans—dogs who might benefit from the research in which they participate.

It also recommended funding independent literature searches that emphasize replacement of dogs, not just a reduction in numbers.

S P R I N G volume 70, number 1 Cuttlefish can delay gratification.

In an adapted version of the famous “marshmallow test,” most cuttlefish chose to wait to receive a higher-value treat rather than consuming a lower-value treat immediately.

Those willing to delay longer were also quickest at learning a discrimination task.

This is only the third species (after humans and chimpanzees) in which a link between self-control and intelligence has been shown—yet more evidence that cuttlefish, along with other cephalopods, are cognitively complex.

research facility rather than be moved to more species-appropriate living space at the Chimp Haven sanctuary in Louisiana.

As the NIH gives a host of excuses for denying sanctuary to certain chimps, the fate of over a hundred retired research chimps held at two Texas research facilities remains under review.

Greyhound racing is rounding its final turn in the United States.

Florida, the erstwhile capital of the notoriously abusive sport, shuttered its last track at the end of 2120 state overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment that prohibits betting on live dog races.

Texas closed its one remaining greyhound track in June 2020.

That would leave West Virginia, with two active tracks, as the last holdout.

Sadly, most are raised in industrial facilities, packed together in dimly lit warehouses and subject to painful mutilations of their beaks and toes to prevent feather pecking, cannibalism, and other stress induced aggressive behaviors.

Higher-welfare alternatives exist, but deceptive labels on conventionally grown birds make it hard for consumers to analyze animal welfare claims.

AWI’s free guide to label claims on meat, egg, and dairy products can help.

CARI’MAM comprises marine mammal stakeholders and experts in the Wider Caribbean and provides countries with a way to share information, combine resources, and cooperate on marine mammal conservation issues.

worked alongside representatives of governments to increase protection for the world’s cetaceans.

Joe Exotic had been sentenced to prison before the series even aired.

Exotic and continued the animal abuse, lost his exhibitor’s license and faces a hefty fine or jail.

Tim Stark lost his roadside zoo in Indiana and was arrested after hiding animals from authorities.

general with wildlife trafficking, conspiracy, and animal cruelty.

Tracking wild wolves is vital for understanding factors that influence their interactions with livestock.

Radio collars are traditionally used, but are expensive and time consuming.

the movements of wolf packs can be tracked noninvasively via devices that record and triangulate the pack’s location based on their howls.

The exact number is unknown, as rodents are not covered under the Animal Welfare Act, the primary federal law for the protection of research animals.

If rodents were covered, the number in use would be reported and the animals would benefit from the law’s stipulations regarding housing, handling, and use (including consideration of alternatives to any potentially painful procedures).

The ability to exercise control over one’s environment is recognized as an important component of good welfare.

Animals in research, however, rarely have such control, even over features designed to enrich.

Scientists in Finland recently provided white-faced saki monkeys a way to switch audiovisual stimuli on or off themselves— essentially handing them the remote.

The monkeys showed clear preferences for certain sights (earthworms over forest scenes) and sounds (traffic over rain).

Such “on-demand” enrichment can readily be adapted to other species.

An AWI Christine Stevens Wildlife Award helped scientists study whether acoustic signals might steer birds away from collisions with buildings.

When the researchers broadcast sounds in front of tall communication towers in the Atlantic migratory flyway of Virginia, birds flew slower and gave the structures a wider berth.

Creating such an “acoustic lighthouse” could reduce collision risks associated with many human-made structures, such as wind turbines and tall buildings, potentially saving billions of birds annually.

In the United Kingdom, gray squirrels are an invasive species, badly outcompeting native red squirrels.

They have been subject to lethal control for decades, but immunocontraception is showing promise as a humane, nonlethal way to control gray squirrels in the country.

Researchers placed contraceptive-laced baits in traps or hoppers accessible only by the larger, stronger grays.

Four days of baiting was sufficient to treat over squirrels in a given woodlot.

A rare winter storm hit Texas in February burst pipelines, and water shortages.

Freezing temperatures took a heavy toll on humans, domestic animals, and even wildlife.

When approximately turtles washed up on South Padre Island, a local nonprofit group stepped in to coordinate the rescue effort, with support from AWI and others.

The animals were gathered, allowed to warm up and rehabilitate, and released back into the Gulf of Mexico.

Thus far, the Biden administration has shown a welcome inclination to undo much of the prior administration’s efforts to sabotage laws and policies meant to safeguard wildlife and habitat.

President Biden’s early executive orders (e.g., halting oil and gas activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rejoining the Paris Agreement on climate change, establishing a bold vision for conserving habitat) are heartening, but it will take an ongoing record of truly courageous leadership to adequately confront the alarming crises that wildlife and the planet face.

of tar to wash ashore along the Israeli and southern Lebanese coastline with devastating impact—covering beaches and rocky shorelines, coating turtles and birds, and killing fish and other marine life.

Rapid and organized response helped alleviate some of the devastation.

To aid this effort, AWI provided an emergency grant that was used for essential cleaning equipment and supplies to aid in the rehabilitation of rescued animals.

the Wider Caribbean (SPAW), held virtually in March and April 2021.

Unfortunately, technical difficulties led to disjointed sessions and stymied progress.

better communication and collaboration among those working on marine mammal protection across the Caribbean.

“Waif” gopher tortoises (those injured, collected illegally, or of unknown origins) could be released into the wild to augment declining populations of the species in the southeastern United States.

But concern over introduced diseases has been a barrier to such releases.

researchers evaluated the viability of releasing waifs into the wild.

They found that over percent of the released waifs survived, most remained near their release location, and disease transmission was low—all extremely encouraging signs for a humane alternative to life-long captivity or euthanasia for these animals while aiding species conservation.

A raccoon in Tennessee was euthanized after spending untold days in agony dragging around a “dog-proof” trap that had nearly amputated the animal’s leg.

Unlike conventional traps, dog proof traps feature a metal tube surrounding the trap’s spring-loaded bars, which is supposed to prevent nontarget animals from getting trapped.

Wildlife managers claim they are more humane, but for those animals who are captured—especially raccoons with their hypersensitive front paws—these traps are no less vicious than other leghold devices.

Ships carrying hundreds of thousands of animals were stalled in and around the Suez Canal for several days in March ship Ever Given ran aground, blocking all traffic.

The incident illustrated the precariousness of such journeys.

Ocean travel is hard on animals to begin with, and delays can deplete food supplies quickly, potentially causing immense animal suffering.

Given scientific advancements in artificial insemination, refrigeration, and air transport, shipping animals via sea vessel seems increasingly unnecessary.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended in March contiguous United States continue to be listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The recommendation applies to the population as a whole, however, not to individual ecosystems.

A study funded by an AWI Refinement Grant found evidence that playtime for mice in research reduces anxiety.

Mice—even those raised in standard, mostly barren “shoebox” cages—responded well when provided early life access to play areas.

They subsequently ventured more freely into novel spaces and displayed less physiological evidence of stress.

They were even willing to forego food rewards in order to spend more time in play areas.

Senior Staff Attorney, Terrestrial Wildlife Erin Sutherland, Esq.

In cases in which you have specific wishes about the disposition of your bequest, we suggest you discuss such provisions with your attorney.

8 Voting Rights 12 Reproductive Freedom 14 Immigrants’ Rights 15 LGBTQ Equality 18 Criminal Law Reform 20 Empowering the Next Generation 22 Financial Summary 24 How You Can Help In 2021, our first order of business was to support and rebuild communities that were most damaged by the Trump administration’s policies, and to work toward undoing the many harms these communities have faced since our country’s founding.

As the pages of this report reflect, that work is far from over.

This year also marks the beginning of the ACLU’s second century of defending civil liberties and civil rights.

Mindful of that legacy, we are redoubling our efforts to close the gap between the America that was promised and the America that is.

We are committed to dismantling the structures that perpetuate systemic racism and inequity in housing, access to the ballot, law enforcement, and more.

We will continue to push the Biden administration and Congress to act on key issues, including protecting and expanding voting rights, student loan debt cancellation, fair housing, and reparations.

Right now, our nation has a window of opportunity in which we can deepen and expand protections of civil liberties and civil rights.

We know this window won’t stay open forever, but no matter what lies ahead, we will hold onto that vista of freedom and fight for its permanence—together.

Executive Director After four years battling the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties and civil rights at the federal level, in we were prepared for a wave of relentless and even more aggressive attempts to erase voting rights, abortion rights, and transgender equality at the state level.

This year alone, lawmakers introduced a barrage of blocking access to abortion, and more than 100 bills restricting transgender rights.

As you’ll read in the pages of this report, the ACLU was a steady force for justice throughout the year, using strategic litigation and advocacy whenever and wherever possible—wielding the power of our affiliates in all D.C., and Puerto Rico.

We were also victorious in our landmark First Amendment case before the Supreme Court, which safeguarded the free speech rights of million public school students.

civil liberties, and the challenges ahead are significant.

But no matter who occupies the White House or the state house, we know that we can rely on our dedicated supporters, activists, volunteers, and coalition partners to get us closer to a nation where “We the People” truly means all of us.

, the Texas Attorney General’s office claimed that there were cases against people who allegedly committed voting offenses in the 2020 election.

All were unproven allegations and represented a fraction of ballots cast last year.

This inflation of case numbers fueled the myth of widespread voter fraud in order to lay the groundwork to further criminalize voting in Texas.

After months of partisan struggle, state lawmakers eventually passed a bill that raises even more barriers to voting for communities of color, people with disabilities, and people who vote by mail.

Those false claims would also be a harbinger of the hundreds of other voter suppression bills introduced across the country in the spring and summer.

This post-election backlash against civil liberties in the states defined the ACLU’s work this year, cutting across every element of our mission: voting rights, immigrants’ rights, LGBTQ equality, reproductive freedom, free speech, and so much more.

In legislation seeking to undermine the very freedoms that define our democracy.

Defending Voting Rights In Georgia, the ACLU banded together with the NAACP to take on a slew of draconian laws designed to disenfranchise Black voters after a historic turnout in the 2020 election.

Across the country, we’ve employed litigation strategies to stop hundreds of other voter suppression laws, including in Indiana, Minnesota, and Montana.

Safeguarding Abortion We joined forces with abortion providers in Texas after the legislature flouted Roe v. Wade by enacting the most extreme abortion restriction in the country.

We’re challenging the law, which bans abortions at six weeks (a time when most people don’t know they’re pregnant) and criminalizes the act of performing or aiding an abortion.

FOR DEMOCRACY This year has been one of great hope and alarm.