A historic victory in the fight to end animal cruelty after a ban on fox hunting in the UK passed its final test in the British Parliament. The hunting ban will come into force in February 2005.

IFAW launched its new state-of-the-art marine mammal research and education vessel, Song of the Whale, which will dramatically increase our ability to protect whales through research, education, and public awareness. IFAW also donated Mexico's first marine mammals research vessel, which scientists will use to study the Vaquita, one of the top five most endangered species in the world.

In Canada, the House of Commons environment committee accepted an IFAW-proposed amendment to fine ships a minimum of half a million dollars if they deliberately dump oil into the sea. Oil dumping kills 300,000 seabirds off the coast of Canada each year.

The European Parliament passed a resolution to seek restrictions on the use of high-intensity active naval sonar that can significantly harm underwater marine life.

We continued to generate enormous public awareness and pressure around the need to end the Canadian seal hunt, quadrupling traffic to the IFAW website during the spring campaign. And thanks to your efforts at telling others about this vital campaign to end cruelty, more than 50,000 new activists came on board to help end the hunt.

IFAW teamed up with US lobstermen to help protect the highly endangered North Atlantic Right Whale by replacing 3,250 miles of dangerous lobster gear with whale-friendly equipment.

IFAW's Emergency Relief Network rescued a wide variety of animals in crisis, including oiled birds in Newfoundland and Brazil, abandoned hurricane victim dogs and cats on the island of Grenada, and one-horned rhinos fleeing floods in northeast India.