Is Anyone Enforcing the Law?
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is the primary piece of
legislation that protects animals bred and sold by dealers, exhibited by
zoos and other attractions or experimented on in laboratories. The
United States Department of Agriculture/Animal & Plant Health Inspection
Service/Animal Care (USDA/APHIS/AC) is the federal agency charged with
enforcing this law.
The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the USDA has
audited USDA/APHIS/AC 3 times regarding enforcement of the AWA. Each of
these audits had found major problems with the enforcement of the AWA.
Coincidentally, three past/present USDA inspectors, each
dealing with one of these same areas, have turned whistleblower since
the OIG audits took place. They have been uniformly critical of
USDA/APHIS/AC, showing that little had changed within the agency after
the OIG audits.
Enforcement Inside Laboratories
In 1995
USDA/APHIS was audited by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of
the USDA. The investigation dealt with enforcement of the AWA in
laboratories. The results were not favorable:
“APHIS does not have the
authority, under current legislation, to effectively enforce the
requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. For Instance, the agency cannot
terminate or refuse to renew licenses or registrations in cases where
serious or repeat violations occur (such as the use of animals in
unnecessary experiments, or failure to treat diseases or wounds). In
addition, APHIS cannot assess monetary penalties for violations unless
the violator agrees to pay them, and penalties are often so low that
violators merely regard them as part of the cost of doing business.”
Essentially, the OIG said that USDA/APHIS lacked sufficient authority to
effectively enforce the AWA within laboratories, and that the USDA/APHIS
didn’t effectively utilize the limited authority that it did have. Have
things changed within the USDA since 1995? Apparently not. In fact, it
appears that the USDA/APHIS hierarchy may have become openly hostile to
effective enforcement of the AWA.
In 2000 Dr.
Isis Johnson-Brown, a former USDA inspector issued the following
statement at a news conference in Portland Oregon:
“The
research institutions I visited, including the Oregon Primate Center,
were not happy to see me coming once they realized that I was going to
hold them to the law. This reaction I expected. What was surprising to
me was my own supervisors were disappointed and unsupportive of my
efforts to simply enforce the bare minimum standards in the Code of
Federal Regulations. The USDA has a good ol’ boy relationship with the
research industry and the laws are nothing more than smoke and mirrors.
More than once, I was instructed by a supervisor to make a personal list
of violations of the law, cut that list in half, and then cut that list
in half again before writing up my inspection reports. My willingness to
uphold the law during my site visits at the Primate Center led to me
being “retrained” several times by higher-ups in the USDA.”
Enforcement Inside Animal Dealers
In 1992
USDA/APHIS was audited by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of
the USDA with respect to enforcement of the AWA regarding animal
dealers. The report was summarized:
“Our
audit concluded that APHIS cannot ensure the humane care and treatment
of animals at all dealer facilities as required by the act. APHIS did
not inspect dealer facilities with a reliable frequency, and it did not
enforce timely correction of violations during inspections.”
Essentially, with regard to dealers, USDA/APHIS was not enforcing the
law. This situation is echoed by the words of Marshal Smith a former
USDA inspector:
“My territory
included 40 kennels in northwest Arkansas. I approached my new job
conscientiously. Records of these pet producers were transferred to me
from a retiring inspector who told me, "If you’re smart you'll do what I
did, you’ll check everything is OK." I told him that I intended to abide
by the law. Another assumption: I assumed he was a lazy good old boy,
that he was not voicing the agency's mindset. The kennels I visited had
seemingly never been inspected. I was overwhelmed by what I saw: the
wretched looking animals, the mounds of fecal matter reaching in some
cases to my knees, at very least to the wire caging of the rabbit
hutches which most puppy millers used to house the dogs. In every
instance that I recall, the filth and deprivation were shocking.”
Enforcement Inside Animal
Exhibitors
In 1996 the
OIG audited the USDA with respect to animal exhibitors. The findings
were no more encouraging:
“Although APHIS Class “C” exhibitor licenses were intended solely for
those who wish to exhibit animals to the public, our visits to 28
APHIS-licensed exhibitors in 3 states disclosed that 18 (64 percent) did
not actually exhibit their animals, but instead maintained them as
pets. Using the regulations broad definition of an exhibitor,
individuals obtained exhibitor licenses in order to circumvent State or
local laws intended to protect the public by restricting private
ownership of wild or exotic animals such as bears or tigers.”
In this
instance APHIS regulations and enforcement practices of the AWA actually
allowed individuals to circumvent local laws and potentially endanger
the public.
Similar
information has come to light in the statement of current USDA Animal
Care Specialist Richard Botelho. A five-year veteran of almost 1000
inspections inside Florida, Botelho has made some familiar-sounding
statements about the USDA
“Failing to enforce the minimum standards and regulations
of the AWA has harmful risks to the animals and to the public.
Potentially dangerous animal are being allowed to be exhibited to the
public without direct control of a handler(s), sufficient distance or
barrier between the animals and the public.”
What you can
do to help:
1.
Read, copy, and distribute this fact sheet.
2. Contact the Chairs of the
House & Senate Agriculture Committees to
demand that they immediately convene investigative hearings to examine
how USDA/APHIS enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.
Bob Goodlatte
2240 Rayburn House Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-5431
202-225-9681 (fax)
Saxby Chambliss
(R-GA)
416 Russell Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3521
202-224-0103 (fax)
3. Contact the Office
of the Inspector General to demand that the current OIG audit
of USDA APHIS deal with the agency’s enforcement of the Animal Welfare
Act.
United States Department of Agriculture
Office of the
Inspector General
Room 41-W Jamie Whitten Bldg
1400 Independence Ave SW
Washington, DC 20250
202-720-5677
4. Contact the Office
of the Secretary of Agriculture to demand both stricter
enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act and an internal investigation of
the allegations made by the present and former USDA staff quoted in
this fact sheet.
Mike Johanns
Secretary of
Agriculture
U.S. Department of
Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave SW Room 200A
Washington, DC 20250
5. Send a
tax-deductible donation to Stop Animal Exploitation NOW! (SAEN)
to support this campaign.
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