For years, animal welfare advocates have criticized the USDA for its lack of transparency. The USDA has historically referred to animal facilities as their 'customers', which shows a cozy relationship that is really problematic.
RACHEL FOBAR: At animal facilities — such as dog breeding centers and roadside zoos — the USDA conducts routine inspections to ensure compliance with the Animal Welfare Act, which requires the humane treatment of animals used for research or exhibition. Violators can be fined or charged with animal cruelty…
For the last six years, however, the USDA has allowed a so-called “teachable moments” policy, wherein minor violations, such as record-keeping problems or lapses in cleanliness, were not documented in facilities’ public inspection reports…
In its 2022 appropriations bill, Congress intervened, directing the USDA to include all noncompliances in its public inspection reports, at the urging of animal welfare advocates. The USDA complied, officially ending its teachable moments policy on August 1…
That policy is now kaput. Going forward, the USDA will now cite all welfare violations in its inspection reports, according to an announcement from the agency’s Animal Care program Deputy Administrator Betty Goldentyer. The reports appear publicly on the USDA website…
For years, animal welfare advocates have criticized this policy for its lack of transparency. “It was impossible to get an accurate report of a licensed facility’s operations and their failures,” says Matt Rossell, a campaign manager at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Teachable moments hindered the proper and lawful care of animals”… The USDA has historically referred to animal facilities as their “customers,” which “shows a cozy relationship that is really problematic,” Rossell says…
The USDA introduced its teachable moments policy in 2016, saying in the announcement that it would allow inspectors and facilities to “work together” to promote Animal Welfare Act compliance. “We see teachable moments as an educational approach,” the bulletin read…
From 2016 to 2020, teachable moments were only accessible via public records requests, which were often heavily redacted and took years to process. In 2020, as directed by Congress, the USDA began posting teachable moments separately online, but they were still not listed in inspection reports, meaning a facility could have numerous minor violations but still boast a clean inspection record…
The USDA allowed some serious infractions to go unreported, animal advocates say. At a Michigan facility named Oswald’s Bear Ranch, for example, a worker was seen transporting bear cubs in a covered plastic bin in a March 18 video posted to its Instagram account. A month later, inspectors issued a teachable moment for improper ventilation, even though the USDA’s animal care guidelines explicitly require inspectors to cite facilities for ventilation issues.
“That’s just one recent example of a laundry list of examples of the USDA having failed to follow its own protocols,” says Brittany Peet, the PETA Foundation’s deputy general counsel for captive animal law enforcement…
The implementation of teachable moments correlates with a drop in the USDA’s Animal Welfare Act enforcement, records show. Within two years of the policy’s introduction, welfare citations dropped 60 percent, according to a 2019 letter signed by 174 members of Congress. Between 2015 and 2020, enforcement actions brought against licensed animal facilities fell by 90 percent, according to a PETA assessment.
This drop in citations “doesn’t represent a change in care, it represents a change in reporting,” Rossell says. “Watchdog organizations like ourselves depend on these inspection reports and other public documents to be able to know what’s happening to the animals of these facilities”. SOURCE…
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