One question that is often asked in international animal protection circles is: “Why is our movement taking so long to become a real force for social change?”

This is particularly striking when you compare ours with the modern environmental movement – a ‘newcomer on the block’, with its beginnings in the 1960s, but which has already gathered critical mass.

Many of us are aware of the popular saying that a law is only as good as its enforcement. But until recently, the average person had limited real-time options to help animals in peril. Enter savvy smartphone apps to the rescue. From the United States to China, technology is helping protect animals from illegal activities such as prohibited trade in wildlife and abuse and neglect of companion animals. And animal protection organizations around the globe are helping move the ball forward. In this blog post, World Animal Net profiles a few apps that are available to iPhone and Android users.

Fishing is an enormous industry. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that in 2012, global production of fish (including crustaceans and mollusks) reached 158 million metric tons. Approximately 91 million metric tons came from wild capture, a number that has remained relatively constant since 2006. Roughly 67 million metric tons come from aquaculture, or the industrial farming of fish. This number, unlike that for captured fish, has nearly doubled since 2003! 

World Animal Net (WAN) has just released a new section of our web site – focusing on Humane Education (HE)!

On September 21, 2014, the historic People's Climate March brought some 400,000 people to the streets (with numerous marches in solidarity around the world) and WAN is proud to have been among them. Marchers aimed to show the United Nations that climate matters and to encourage the organization to take strong action on climate change at the 2014 Climate Summit, attended by heads of state. 

The field of animal law and legislation is rapidly expanding as countries around the globe prioritize the well-being of animals. But where does one go for information on existing laws and recent legal developments? World Animal Net has surveyed the field and come up with our top three picks.

World Animal Net congratulates the United Nations Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Agenda for acknowledging the importance of the protection of terrestrial ecosystems in its recently proposed list of sustainable development goals.

On June 5, the first joint US/China Animal Law forum was hosted at the University of Houston- Downtown (UHD), in partnership with the Northwest China University of Politics and Law and the South Texas College of Law.