The Animal Welfare Act

The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is the federal law that governs the humane care, handling, treatment, and transportation of animals used in laboratories. Contrary to popular belief, it does not prohibit any experiment, no matter how painful or useless; it simply sets minimum housing and maintenance standards for confined animals. The AWA also covers dealers who sell animals to laboratories, transporters of animals, dog and cat breeders, puppy mills, zoos, circuses, roadside menageries, and animal exhibitors, carriers, and intermediate handlers. However, it specifically excludes retail pet stores, state and county fairs, livestock shows, rodeos, purebred dog and cat shows, and “fairs and exhibitions intended to advance agricultural arts and sciences.”
Fines and terms of imprisonment are listed as penalties for violations of the act but are rarely imposed.

Species Covered by the AWA
Technically, the AWA covers any “live or dead dog, cat, nonhuman primate, guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or any other warm-blooded animal, which [sic] is being used, or is intended for use for research, teaching, testing, experimentation, or exhibition purposes.” The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) interprets the AWA in such a way that it excludes birds, rats, and mice bred for research as well as horses and other farmed animals, such as cows and pigs, used or intended for use as food or fiber. Horses and other farmed animals are covered if they are used in experiments, but equines are now specifically denied coverage if they are used in entertainment events such as rodeos or mule-diving. The AWA also, by definition, excludes cold-blooded animals. This is not just arbitrary—since many cold-blooded species are used in research and exhibition—it’s also appalling when one considers that it allows the cruelest of situations to be imposed on these sentient beings (e.g., forcing giant turtles—who are normally very shy—to give children rides).

Regulations
Standards have been written specifying the minimum requirements for handling, care, housing, treatment, transportation, feeding, watering, sanitation, ventilation, lighting, shelter, veterinary care, and separation by species. In most cases, though, the AWA does not clearly define “minimum requirements.” For example, with regard to the use of primates, the AWA only calls for “a physical environment adequate to promote the psychological well-being of primates.” It is often the case that the “minimum” required becomes the maximum provided.

There are no regulations that specifically govern the conduct of an experiment or what the animals will be forced to endure during an experiment. For example, the AWA actually allows the withholding of anesthetics whenever “scientifically necessary,” which means that animals will not be given any painkillers if an experimenter says that they would interfere with the results of the experiment.

Periodic inspections of animal research laboratories by an institutional committee are required. Each committee must have at least three members, and “at least one shall not be affiliated in any way with the facility.” This member is supposed to “provide representation for general community interests in the proper care and treatment of animals,” but there is no guarantee that this person will be from a humane organization. Most committees simply “rubber-stamp” the experimenters’ work without performing a critical evaluation, and the outside member is chosen from among people who are known to support animal experiments and whose views do not reflect even basic animal welfare concerns.

All Bark, No Bite
The AWA has the potential to improve the living conditions for animals who are held captive in laboratories, exploited in exhibits, and warehoused in breeding facilities. The responsibility for enforcing the AWA lies with a division of the USDA known as the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). However, budgetary constraints and strong opposition from animal breeders, pharmaceutical companies, exhibitors, and experimenters themselves—as well as an inadequate number of inspectors—have resulted in poor enforcement of the AWA.

There are more than 1,000 research facilities and more than 2,800 exhibitors and 4,500 dealers in the United States that are supposed to be inspected each year.(1)

There are three APHIS sector offices with a total of approximately 70 veterinary inspectors who are supposed to inspect, unannounced, the various types of facilities covered by the AWA.(2)

This means that 70 inspectors have to cover nearly 8,300 facilities nationwide.

What You Can Do
Write to your representatives in Congress and ask that they support any pending or future legislation that will increase funding and/or strengthen the USDA’s ability to enforce the AWA.

If you think that you have witnessed violations of the AWA, please contact:

Animal Care
USDA, APHIS
4700 River Rd., Unit 84
Riverdale, MD 20737
301-734-7833
301-734-4978 (fax)
ace@aphis.usda.gov

Note: All quotations are taken from the Animal Welfare Act, as published by APHIS.

References
1) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, “Animal Care Report,” (Riverdale: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2004).
2) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, “Compliance Inspections,” (Riverdale: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Jun. 2005).