The founders of EIA congratulate the Animal Welfare Institute on its 75th anniversary
On behalf of EIA, co-founders Allan Thornton, Dave Currey and I are delighted to warmly congratulate the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) on its 75th anniversary.
We are proud that AWI has been an important partner of EIA since it was founded in 1984. Indeed, without the strong support and encouragement of AWI Founder Christine Stevens and her husband Roger, EIA may not have become the remarkable organisation it is today.
Christine Stevens, AWI founder, with one of her beloved dogs, via AWI
For 75 years, AWI has been dedicated to alleviating animal suffering caused by people. Its vision is a world where the treatment of animals is rooted in dignity and compassion.
When Christine founded AWI on 10 July, 1951, she envisioned an organisation that charted a middle ground between researchers, who insisted on unfettered access to animals used in laboratories (irrespective of welfare concerns), and antivivisectionists, who rallied to abolish animal experimentation entirely.
Ever the pragmatist, Christine prioritised battles where meaningful progress could be achieved, armed with indispensable data.
Elegant and gracious, she was also fearless and relentless. With the support of her husband, real estate executive and theatrical producer Roger Stevens, Christine capitalised on the couple’s extensive connections in the worlds of politics and the arts to persuade those in power and advocates on the ground to take action to prevent human-inflicted animal suffering.
Allan met Christine in the late 1970s when he was working with Greenpeace and commercial whaling was driving populations of great whales to the edge of extinction. The two were part of a group of NGOs determinedly working to persuade member governments of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to agree a moratorium on commercial whaling.
Sperm whale mother and calf
The Moratorium was adopted in 1982 and implemented 40 years ago in 1986. It is one of the most important conservation and welfare measures ever agreed, enabling great whale populations to gradually recover. EIA and AWI have always been key partners in our work to ensure the moratorium remains in place and that the IWC addresses conservation and welfare threats to whales, dolphins and porpoises. In addition to hunting, these include entanglement, ship strikes, pollution and climate change.
Impressed with EIA’s Faroe Islands pilot whale campaign, which took place a year after EIA was formed, Christine proposed that we investigate the international trade in wild birds for the pet trade in which tens of millions of birds were dying every year.
The results of our investigations and exposés were used to campaign with AWI and others, resulting in the passing of the US Wild Bird Conservation Act, legislation in Europe and action taken by airlines to ban transporting wild birds. This determined campaign saved the lives of immeasurable millions of wild birds and likely stopped the extinction of some species.
EIA helped convince international airlines to stop carrying wild-caught birds for the pet trade and helped develop the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992
In the mid 1980s, it was being predicted that elephants could be extinct by the end of the 20th century. Christine told Allan and Dave that EIA could save the elephants. This was not a flippant remark – based on the evidence of this tiny organisation’s early achievements, she was serious.
So began our investigations into the rampant illegal trade in ivory, revealing how ivory was being trafficked out of Africa to end up as objects and trinkets on sale in stores around the world.
EIA’s extraordinary two-year undercover investigations, exposés and analysis resulted in a campaign with AWI and other organisations to achieve a ban on the international trade in ivory – and in October 1989 that ban was adopted by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and implemented on 18 January 1990. Elephants were saved from extinction.
Allan Thornton and Dave Currey documenting elephant poaching in Africa (c) EIA
In 1990, as EIA’s campaigns expanded, we decided on the logical step to set up an office in Washington, DC and so EIA US was born. We were able to work with AWI and other US-based NGOs in influencing US legislation etc and building our campaigns. Christine and her husband gave us valuable support and encouragement, without which we may not have succeeded in developing this office.
Christine was fun and kind as well as fundamentally determined to do all she could to improve the lives of animals. She was our mentor and Dave, Allan and I feel so privileged to have worked with her up until she died. We are honoured to have each been awarded the prestigious AWI Schweitzer Medal for our work.
A key part of Christine’s legacy is today’s AWI team and its dedicated work to protect animals and their environments.
On behalf of all at EIA and its founders, we wish you a very happy 75th anniversary celebration.