Animal Welfare Institute

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is an American, non-profit, charitable organization founded in 1951 with the goal of reducing pain and fear inflicted on animals by humans. Its legislative division, the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), pushes for the passage of laws that reflect this purpose.

In the organization’s early years, its particular emphasis was on animals used for experimentation. AWI expanded the scope of its work in the following decades to address many other areas of animal-rights-related issues.

One major current area of emphasis is factory farms. AWI speaks out against this and promotes small, independent family farms that follow the organization’s animal welfare and husbandry standards. Other efforts include ending the use of steel-jaw leghold traps for catching fur-bearing animals, improving the lives of animals in laboratories, and promoting the development of non-animal testing methods.

AWI representatives regularly attend meetings of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to fight for the protection of threatened and endangered species. They also attend meetings of the International Whaling Commission to fight to preserve the ban on commercial whaling and work to protect all marine life against the proliferation of anthropogenic ocean noise.

Marine biologist and nature writer Rachel Carson joined the Animal Welfare Institute Advisory Board in 1960, just prior to the release of her book Silent Spring.

In 1951, it was illegal for non-profit tax-exempt organizations to engage in lobbying activities. “We couldn’t do any substantial amount of lobbying and keep our tax-exempt status,” explained Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) founder Christine Stevens, who is referred to as the "Mother of the Animal Protection Movement." Her solution was to form an organization that did not require a tax-exempt status, one that would inform senators, representatives and the public about animal issues. The Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL) became the first organization founded in the United States specifically to lobby on behalf of animals. If legislators wanted to know more about issues pertaining to humane slaughter, leghold traps or endangered species, they contacted SAPL. Because of changes in tax laws, in 2003, SAPL merged with the Animal Welfare Institute, bringing together two of the oldest and leading animal protection organizations in the United States.

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