Dear ASI Friends,
I’m excited to share the news that we have a generous donor who has agreed to match all donations during our 2021 Spring Matching Gift Campaign – up to $10,000!
This means that when you donate to ASI this spring, you will double your gift while supporting life-changing programs.
As the leading think-tank in the human-animal studies field, your support is critical to ensure that humane policy and practice throughout communities are driven by research, science and compassion.
ASI’s work is vast — from managing two scholarly journals, Society & Animals and the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science to the Brill Human Animal Studies Book Series which explores human-animal interactions in a range of settings and disciplines. We also have resources to support emerging and established scholars such as our HAS Report. Our policy papers have been used across many fields to inform the public policy debate on animal protection issues.
We understand ASI’s high quality research is a go-to resource for you and so many others. Resources like our “Animals and COVID-19” curated collection are only possible because of donors like you.
But we need your help to continue this critical work. Your gift today has the power to do just that! And don’t forget, every gift during our 2021 Spring Matching Gift Campaign will be doubled – up to $10,000.
With Gratitude,
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Ivy Collier
Executive Director
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Human-Animal Studies Corner
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The Wildlife Trade’s Contributions to This
—and the Next—Pandemic
A Reflection by Dr. Gala Argent, HAS Program Director
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With a year of hindsight, we all know more about the causes of the COVID-19 pandemic and zoonotic diseases in general. The nodes of human-animal connection where coronaviruses jump species are many, including dogs, cats, birds, chickens, pigs and rodents. But in the research that has arisen this year, the primary touchpoint is between humans and wild animals.
Finding the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for fighting future zoonotic epidemics, creating drugs for treatments, and developing vaccines. As noted by Jeremy Rossman in an April 2021 piece in ScienceFocus, “There are good reasons to look for the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, although they may not directly affect our current situation or our ability to control the pandemic. If we’re able to discover the origins of the virus we may learn if there’s an unknown reservoir of the virus in some wild animal population that may pose risks of future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks.”
Scientists now understand that this pandemic originated in bats, although here speculation diverges. It is possible that this coronavirus passed directly from horseshoe bats to humans, or that it passed through an intermediary host where it further evolved before jumping to humans. That intermediary host is thought to be the pangolin. According to an August, 2020 article in The New Yorker, in 2019 necropsies on pangolins with respiratory distress who were seized by customs police showed evidence of two viruses: One harmless to humans and one a coronavirus. Later, as researchers scrambled to find the source of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chinese researchers found that although the match overall was not that close, lung tissue from these pangolins did contain some gene segments that were 99% similar to parts of the SARS-CoV-2 that caused this pandemic. Knowing this led to suppositions that that viral genes were shuffled between bat and pangolin before reaching humans.
All eight species of pangolin are being pushed toward extinction due to human consumption of their bodies and trafficking of their skins and scales. Between 1975 and 2000—when their export was deemed illegal—approximately 776,000 pangolins became merchandise that was traded legally on the international market. Up to that point, the pangolin scales were primarily used in traditional Chinese medicines (that are not supported by science), while most of the skins went to North America to be manufactured into fashion accessories like belts, handbags and boots. As the Asian populations were depleted, pangolins from Africa that had been regionally consumed as a bush-meat market commodity supplied an international trade for the skins, scales and bodies of these docile animals. By 2016 the situation was so dire that all international trade of wild-caught pangolins and their parts was declared illegal. That has not stopped the lucrative trade.
The meek pangolin certainly is not the only species imperiled by the wildlife trade even in protected areas, according to a recent online article in Science. Wildlife trafficking impacts tens of millions of individual animals, generates between $5 and $20 billion per year, and supports 150 million human families who eat or sell those animals for their livelihoods. A recent review study of 32 papers found that in unprotected areas, trafficked species populations declined by 65% with a less, but still significant, decline of 39% in areas that were protected.
It is unclear from which animal of these animals the next pandemic might crossover to humans. (For instance, the 2012 outbreak of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), also a coronavirus, had established itself in camels before spilling over to humans with the help of bats.) But it is safe to say that the wildlife trade offers significant chances for this type of spillover to happen by creating more instances of wild animal-human interaction at a number of levels.
As noted in an NPR piece, "We live in a kind of coronavirus world," said virologist Edward Holmes at the University of Sydney. According to Holmes, "We're only just starting to scratch the surface. The virusphere of coronaviruses is just immense." One research study from 2018 by the EcoHealth Alliance, found 3% of people tested in southern Chinese villages had been infected with an unknown coronavirus within the past few years. His research leads Holmes to caution, "I think we need to face reality here. Coronavirus pandemics are not a once in a hundred year event. The next one could come at any time. It could come in 50 years or in 10 years. Or it could be next year."
Both the search for the origins of this zoonotic pandemic and preventing the next one has implications not only for creating a safer world for humans, but also for the lives and livelihoods of the wild animals trafficked for human purposes. The general public now has a much greater awareness that human-animal connections fostered this pandemic, a global disaster that has taken more than a year of our collective effort to begin to overcome. With that knowledge comes an obligation to do what we can not only to prevent the next pandemic, but also to find solutions that reduce and ultimately stop the destruction of wildlife species with whom we share this—our shared and only—planet.
MORE INFORMATION
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THE POLICY CORNER
by LeAnn Snow
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This month, we share another recurring feature you can expect from the Policy Corner: snapshots of current policy developments taking place at both the federal and state levels. The focus will be on highlighting legislative updates related to distinctive human-animal contexts including animal experimentation, companion animal welfare, farmed animals, and wildlife relations. This first installment begins by introducing our new Congress and their activities thus far, then closes with a review of state-level developments.
Here’s what has been introduced to the 117th Congress (2021-2022):
Companion Animal Welfare:
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The Child and Animal Abuse Detection and Reporting Act (H.R. 763) seeks to include data on animal abuse as an amendment to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act. ASI’s Animals and Public Policy Committee has been hard at work behind the scenes to advance this particular piece of legislation.
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The Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act (H.R. 1016) has been introduced because of cited links between animal cruelty and violence against humans. The goal of this bill is to establish an Animal Cruelty Crimes Section within the Department of Justice Environmental and Natural Resources Division.
Animal Experimentation:
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Introduced to Congress in March, the Humane Research and Testing Act of 2021 (H.R. 1744) seeks to amend the NIH Revitalization Act such that steps towards the reduction and replacement of animals in experimentation are actualized.
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H.R. 1905 and H.R. 2565, two bills introduced in March and April respectively, seek to amend the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act by allowing manufacturers and sponsors of products to use non-animal testing as an alternative safety and effectiveness demonstration.
At the state level, the range of introduced legislation in 2021 has been more diverse but indicates a similar emphasis on companion animal welfare and alternatives to animal testing. Unfortunately, harmful legislation for animals has also been introduced. You can see a comparative ranking of your state’s animal protection laws here and gain insight into what certain states have accomplished legislatively to increase their animal protection standings. The following list summarizes current state legislative activities:
Pet Sales and Puppy Mills:
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H.B. 1424 (WA) was signed into law in April and disallows the sales of puppies at new pet stores. Under this legislation, stores that currently sell puppies from unreputable sources will have time to transition their business models to be in accordance with the updated law.
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This month, Colorado signed into law H.B. 1102 (CO), an act which mandates that pet stores disclose information about the purchase price and origin of a cat or dog for sale.
Animal Experimentation:
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H.B. 1551 (ME), introduced in April and passed unanimously by the referred Committee in May, seeks to ban the sale of cosmetics that used animal testing and would also prohibit the sale of animal tested products beginning Nov. 1, 2021
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Maryland has also introduced S.B. 282, which is expected to be signed, that would prohibit animal testing for cosmetics, joining a growing movement among states to pass similar legislation.
Wildlife Management:
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In the widely reported and highly contentious bill signed by Idaho’s governor on May 5th, S.B. 1211 makes legal the extermination of 90% of the resident wolf population, effective July 1st, 2021.
Farmed Animals:
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In a setback for farm animal protection activists, Iowa’s H.B. 655 was signed into law and prohibits interference with the transportation of agricultural animals in motor vehicles.
This list highlights the most significant developments but is not exhaustive. Illinois and Texas have also recently introduced amendments to laws concerning companion animal welfare, Vermont has passed an amendment that expands the list of authorized individuals investigating animal cruelty cases, and New York introduced an act that would require courts to consider the best interest of pets during divorce or separation proceedings.
In future installments, the Policy Corner will continue to provide updates on introduced bills, highlight new legislation, and offer a comparative perspective by looking at how international legislation can set a precedent for U.S. policy at the federal, state and local levels.
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Help Create Safer and More Compassionate Communities
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ASI Seeks Board Members with Non-Profit Finance Expertise
Do you want to help create a more compassionate world? Would you like to see evidence-based research used to strengthen human-animal relationships? If you do, you may be a match for ASI’s open board member positions. If you have experience in nonprofit finances, we would love to talk to you. Whether you have experience working with a hands-on board or are thinking about joining a board for the first time, this may be the right opportunity for you. Learn more here.
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