This report provides a very easily read summary of the techniques and welfare problems involved in the creation and maintenance of transgenic farm animals. The author suggests that the motive for carrying out this type of biotechnological research is largely financial, and that there has been little regard for the welfare of the animals used. The stated view of The Compassion in World Farming Trust, given in the conclusion to the report is that ‘it is unethical for us to impose suffering on other sentient beings either for monetary gain or for medical “advancement”, human or nonhuman’. It is therefore not surprising that the report is categorically opposed to the genetic engineering of farm animals.

In April 1995 a public conference entitled In the Company of Animals was held in New York under the auspices of the international quarterly journal of social science, Social Research. This meeting was set up to examine man's relationship with animals, over time and in different cultures. The printed proceedings of this conference have now been produced as a single whole issue of Volume 62 of Social Research. There are 14 full papers, an Editor's Introduction, 4 Section Introductions, a Keynote Address by Stephen Jay Gould and 8 shorter contributions to a panel discussion. The ‘book’ has been edited by Arien Mack. The whole is, in effect, a most interesting, scholarly and wide-ranging coverage of the biological, historical, social and ethical aspects of man's relationship with animals. Animal welfarists, scientists, sociologists and historians will all benefit from browsing through and hopefully reading much of the material in this modestly priced but extremely valuable volume.

This publication grew out of a side-meeting at the 1st World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences: Education, Research and Testing, held in Baltimore, Maryland in November 1993. It was felt there was a need for a directory of resources addressing various aspects of the alternatives issue. Four people volunteered to develop such a resource and in the Spring of 1994 a questionnaire was developed and sent to all interested parties. The Directory grew out of the responses to the questionnaire. It gives information on newsletters, databases, publications and computer models. Each entry comprises the resource developer's name, address, telephone/fax, descriptive information, costs, availability, audience, language and a contact person's name.

Builders and property developers sometimes carry out construction work which may interfere with the lives of badgers resident and living adjacent to the development site. This booklet is intended as a basic guide for developers, so that they can understand the basic problems and the possible methods that can be used to overcome or limit the damage which may be done to the badgers.

In April 1995 the Animal Health Trust, The British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare Foundation and The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals held the first of a proposed series of joint one-day symposia on welfare problems of food animals and horses. The first of the series was subtitled The Foot. This was a good choice, for foot conditions are an important welfare and economic problem in farm animals and horses.

It has been estimated that each year some 4.7 million Americans - 2.8 million of them children - are dog bite victims. To help deal with this problem June 10th to the 15th 1996 was designated National Dog Bite Prevention Week. In dealing with this initiative the United States (HSUS) prepared a Postmaster's Dog Bite Prevention Week Kit. This kit is made up of a well-produced, glossy 23-page brochure produced by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and two factual leaflets and a poster produced by the HSUS.

This booklet, which is actually a special one-time-only edition of PAWS NEWS, is labelled on its front cover as ‘Everything you should know to make the world a better place for dogs and cats’. It is designed to be customized, ie have individual organizations place their name and address etc on it, for distribution by other shelters and animal groups in the United States.

The Agriculture and Resource Management Council of Australia and New Zealand in July 1993 requested the Sub-Committee on Animal Welfare to undertake a review process in relation to an Australian policy for the housing of laying hens. This request was driven by a need to address the issue and its animal welfare aspects at the national level, and to consider community views as well as the scientific and commercial aspects of the problem. A working group was set up with members from a wide range of interests. There were animal welfarists, animal scientists, behaviourists, veterinarians and representatives of the Australian egg industry. The lengthy and detailed report was published in December 1994. It is essentially a critically argued account of the interplay of the various scientific, ethical, social and economic factors which impinge on the real and perceived welfare of laying hens. It does largely take account of Australian conditions but the approaches to the welfare of layer hens elsewhere in the world are considered in detail. The conclusions which are numerous and in most cases realistic, are applicable to most situations under which egg laying poultry are kept and used. This authoritative report is essential background reading for all who are seriously interested in the welfare of the layer hen.

The eleventh and twelfth additions to the ANZCCART Facts Sheet series on biology and management of species used in biomedical research are: The Domestic Chicken (1996, by Philip Glatz, Kim Critchley and Christine Lunam), and Restraint and Handling of Captive Wildlife (1996, by Andrew Tribe and Derek Spielman). The leaflet on the domestic chicken provides brief introductions to the history of the chicken in captivity, its housing, husbandry, major diseases, and techniques of blood sampling and anaesthesia. That on restraint and handling of wildlife includes sections on remote drug administration systems and drugs used, and on restraint of a few selected groups or taxa: medium-sized and large primates, medium-sized carnivores and ungulates, and reptiles (not birds). Like others in the series, these are useful introductory leaflets for trainee animal technicians, veterinary nurses and others, and they provide references to some of the more substantial publications that personnel planning to work in these fields would certainly need to be familiar with.

In May/June 1995 the European Centre for Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) held a workshop on the role of replacement, refinement and reduction, ie the Three Rs, in biomedical research and testing. A report and the recommendations of this workshop were published in the journal ATLA and have now been reprinted with minor amendments. This 29-page document is a most valuable resource of the current situation re the Three Rs. It covers the origins and the evolution of the three Rs concept, the reduction alternatives, the refinement alternatives and the replacement alternatives. Interwoven with these main themes there are a number of more general items on such matters as: considerations of the scientific and ethical justification of using animals for research purposes; on the validations and scientific barriers to the adoption of alternative methods; and on educating, training and informing scientists and the general public about the use of limitation of the Three Rs approach. The whole is finished with some 58 Conclusions and Recommendations and a 112 item list of references.

The broiler bird is the most commonly kept farm animal in the UK. Each year some 650 million of these animals are produced and eaten. The vast majority are reared intensively in, what many people would consider, overcrowded conditions. They have such a high growth rate of muscle tissue that, in some ways, they often overgrow the ability of their legs to support their body weight. Many of the birds consequently suffer from painful leg disorders in the latter part of their brief lives. They are collected, often in a somewhat rough manner, transported to the poultry slaughterhouse, suspended upside down on a hanging rail and stunned/killed by a sometimes inefficient electrical process. Broiler production is thus probably the biggest single animal welfare problem in the UK.

Whose Eden? is a report to the Overseas Development Administration of the British Government. It presents an overview and analysis of literature on community approaches to wildlife management, with the majority of the information gained from schemes in Africa. The analyses are split into top-down approaches (ownership of wildlife by the state, traditional protected areas, wildlife legislation enforcement) and participatory approaches (involvement of local people and their needs in wildlife management). This latter category is also further broken down into a range from passive participation (donor-funded and compensation schemes) to active participation (community-led generation and distribution of benefits from wildlife utilization). The report also identifies conditions under which uses of wildlife are likely to be sustainable.

In New Zealand the law states that no person can conduct any scientific research or use animals in teaching, other than in accordance with a code of ethical conduct drawn up by his or her research institute. The code must be approved by the Minister of Agriculture and one of the main requirements is that the institute must establish an Animal Ethics Committee to oversee the use of animals within that Institute. In effect animal experimentation in New Zealand is controlled by ‘statutory’ local animal ethical committees. This is in contrast with the UK situation where statutory control is centrally organized by the Home Office using the powers conferred on it by the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. It is possible that the standards set in the two countries are very similar but are arrived at by different legal/administrative processes.