Animal Rights

Deregulating trade while curbing immigration would lead to a sharp decline in animal welfare.

Statistics can inform, surprise and amaze but in the Internet age, it’s easy to get lost in the abundance of often conflicting data out there. The Vegan Society’s DOMINIKA PIASECKA presents some findings that will make you think twice about your diet

Major landowners - responsible for 700km2 of potential Eurasian lynx habitat in the Kielder Forest region - have approved access for lynx during the planned Lynx UK Trust trial reintroduction of the apex predator. MARIANNE BROOKER reports

Does the fight for social justice include animal liberation? Municipalist organizing can build a transformative future for all creatures.

It’s never been easier to show support for a cause. To make online armchair campaigning even easier still, Ellie O’Donnell and ALEXANDRA HEAL and ELLIE O'DONNELL have compiled a list of 10 ongoing campaigns they think Ecologist readers would like to know about

Animal charities are calling on the government to take action on cruel puppy trade, live farm animal exports, foie gras and fur imports, farm subsidies and severe animal experiments to ensure UK can maintain its ambition of being as pioneer for animals as Britain exits EU. BRENDAN MONTAGUE reports

Britain is known as a nation of animal lovers. It is the birthplace of Watership Down, Peter Rabbit - and Animal Farm. But the meat, cosmetics and other animal dependent industries are also a large part of the British economy. Until now, EU regulations have improved animal welfare. As the country prepares for Brexit, HELEN BROWNING asks whether animal sentience will remain recognised by UK law.

If the thought of dropping a live lobster into a pan of boiling water horrifies you, then you're in good company including that of a new campaigning group that wants lobsters to be given the same animal welfare rights as other creatures. LAURA BRIGGS reports

Last month, an outright ban on greyhound racing was announced in the Australian state of New South Wales following an inquiry which uncovered overwhelming evidence of systematic animal cruelty. Will the UK do the same asks LAURA BRIGGS

British conservationist and TV wildlife presenter Anneka Svenska is campaigning at Royal Ascot today to bring the plight of over 1,400 British racehorses that have died following racing injuries since 2007 to the attention of the mainstream - by wearing a dramatic hat made with a thousand blood-red roses.

Star Wars' actress ‘Princess Leia' Carrie Fisher joined animal-loving celebrities & MP's to present a petition created by Humane Society International (HIS) and featuring almost 12 million signatures to The Chinese Embassy in London, requesting an end to the gruesome annual Yulin dog & cat eating festival in China.

The Badger cull debate has become a much wider discussion about our relationship with wildlife and how we value and care for it says Dominic Dyer.....

Campaigners and MEPs say legal challenges by hunters and seal traders will not succeed to overturning the new EU wide ban on the trade in seal products

The renowned primatologist and conservationist on the need for scientific empathy, the impact of economic development, and why children give her hope for the future

The first blows may be struck on Canadian ice, but it's at the checkout that the coup de grace is delivered. Andrew Wasley explores the UK companies profiting from the trade in seal fur

MPs, medical professionals and scientists unite in demanding a thorough evaluation of the utility of vivisection. By Kathy Archibald, Science Director of Europeans for Medical Progress

From chasing endangered parrots to hunting for the environmental holy grail with Friends of the Earth, one of Britain's pre-eminent eco campaigners wants to take his quest for a better, greener world to the halls of Westminster.
Dixe Wills meets a man on a mission

A decade and a half after conservationists wrung from the European Parliament a commitment to end the trade, the EU remains the largest importer of parrots in the world.

Consuming endangered wildlife is illegal in China, but it continues on a large scale in the country’s south. Walter Parham reports on a habit that locals just cannot kick – even after the SARS crisis.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has reached the target of £86,888 set by Tesco to print and distribute leaflets to its shareholders.

From Catalonia in the South, through the Ariège and Béarn, to the Basque country in the North, both locals and tourists are used to seeing Nationalist slogans daubed in white paint on Pyrenean mountain roads. But now a new clarion call is vying for their attention: Non Ours (no bears) and Mort aux Ours (death to the bears.)

‘I’ve been to a fair number this – this is a fantastic place to be based,’ says the Soil Association’s Lee Holdstock, fresh from a trip to the remote south west corner of the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides.

The future of one of Europe’s most pristine wildlife sites hangs in the balance as landmark EU legal wrangling continues over a controversial Polish highway