Animal Welfare Institute Records 1930-2024

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) was founded in 1951 by Christine Stevens as a non-profit, charitable organization with the intention of working to reduce the amount of pain and fear that humans inflict on animals. The immediate focus of the AWI in the 1950s and 1960s was the cruelty to which animals were subjected in research laboratories and other experimental environments. Since that time, AWI has expanded its focus to also monitor animals in the wild, on farms, and in other captive environments, such as zoos, circuses, and domestic situations.

To promote these aims, the Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL) was subsequently founded by Stevens in 1955. When SAPL was founded, only two federal laws to protect animals existed. With its founding, SAPL became the first non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to the passage and promotion of local, federal, and international legislation concerning animal welfare. Begining in 1958, SAPL has aided in the ratification of fifteen federal laws and nine strengthening amendments, while also working to combat opposing legislation.

SAPL existed as a separate, sister organization of the AWI until 2003; tax law changes in that year allowed SAPL to become a division of the AWI. To promote animal welfare, SAPL researches animal-specific issues and then prepares information for members of Congress and their staff.

Christine Stevens acted as president of AWI from the time of founding until her death in 2002. As of 2011, the AWI is run by a group of directors, officers, and committees of scientific personnel. The AWI is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

The records of the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) include administrative files of both AWI and Society for Animal Protective Legislation (SAPL), subject files on animals the organization works to protect, files on legislation that SAPL has been involved with, files on the work of other animal rights groups, subject files on regional activities, publications, books, photographs, audiovisual materials, and archived webcontent. Materials of the organization range in date from its founding in the early 1950s to the early 2020's; other materials in the collection date back to the 1930s.

The collection is organized into seventeen principal series: 1. Animal Welfare Institute Administrative and Organization Files, 2. Society for Animal Protective Legislation Administrative and Research Files, 3. Animals in the Oceans, 4. Animals in the Wild, 5. Animals in Laboratories, 6. Animals in Sports and Amusements, 7. Animals in Agriculture, 8. Legislation and Public Policy, 9. Regional Files, 10. Other Groups and Organizations, 11. Other Topical Files, 12. Publications, 13. Photographs, 14. Audiovisual Materials, 15. Christine Stevens Personal Papers, 16. Posters, 17. Unprocessed Materials, Web Content

There is considerable overlap among topics covered in the series, and materials related to the Animal Welfare Institute and the Society for Animal Protective Legislation can be found in all series. There is also considerable overlap between Series 12: Publications and preceding topical series. Within each series and subseries, files are typically arranged alphabetically and then by date. See series descriptions for more content information.

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The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.

This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.

[Identification of item], Animal Welfare Institute Records, MC 00344, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC

Animal Rights Network Oral History Collection, 1999-2002 (MC 00582)

Received from the Animal Welfare Institute, 2003 (Accession no. 2003.0017), 2004 (Accession no. 2004-0005), and 2021 (Accession nos. 2021.0106 and 2021.0148). Web content harvested using the Internet ARchive's Archive-It services, starting in 2020.

Processed by Cate Putirskis, 2008 January; Danica Cullinan, Claire Ruswick and Emily Walters, 2010 June; Stephanie Barnwell and Babi Hammond, 2011 September; Lori Harris, Darby Reiners and Ashley Williams, 2014 May.

Machine-readable finding aid created by by Cate Putirskis, 2008 January; updated by Danica Cullinan, Claire Ruswick and Emily Walters, 2010 June; updated by Stephanie Barnwell and Babi Hammond, 2011 September; updated by Lori Harris, Darby Reiners and Ashley Williams, 2014 May; updated by Taylor Wolford, 2022 March; updated by Katelyn Cuomo, 2023 December; Archived web content processed by Alexander Daniels, 2024 February

This collection was processed with support from the Council on Library and Information Resources Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives program.