USDA inspectors documented dozens of welfare violations at Envigo, a research breeding facility, where more than 5,000 dogs were found crowded in barren, moldy cages. The USDA did not confiscate any dogs nor issue fines during five visits in the span of one year.
RACHEL FOBAR: Three dead bats were found in a washroom at Colorado State University, where researchers study bat-borne viral diseases. A shade cloth in the bat enclosure was taken down to be cleaned, and when it “was unfolded the next morning … three perished bats were found inside,” noted a January 2020 report by an inspector with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act.
Colorado State University “developed new procedures and retrained husbandry staff” to ensure that no more bats get trapped and die in the shade cloth, the report said. Two years later, USDA inspectors found another dead bat, stuck “in the folds of one of the roosting tarps.” The bat appeared dried out and was “readily visible” without the inspector having to move the tarp, the February 2022 report says.
Colorado State keeps more than 1,900 animals, including 650 Jamaican fruit bats for its Center for Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases and 350 sheep for its Animal Reproduction and Biotechnology Laboratory, as well as horses and cows.
In April 2022, the USDA fined Colorado State University $5,800, citing veterinary and animal-handling violations of the Animal Welfare Act that contributed to the bats’ deaths and noting “an accumulation of feces and deteriorating hay” in November 2021 and February 2022 in various sheep, horse, and cow enclosures. The USDA also fined the university $5 for failing to maintain a fence around the perimeter that was high enough. This allowed eight sheep to be killed by a bobcat.
On April 30, 2022, animal care staff at the university found a fallen tarp, “which resulted in the death” of 20 bats. Although the USDA was informed of the deaths, no additional fine was issued…
The maximum fine the USDA can impose for an animal welfare violation is $12,771 per day, according to a 2022 rule posted by the agency. Often, however, penalties are so small that violators consider them merely “a cost of doing business,” according to numerous reports from the USDA’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which audits the agency.
A total fine of $5,800 for violations by Colorado State University, which received a $6.7-million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund a new bat research facility–especially for violations that involved animal deaths–“is deeply troubling,” says Delcianna Winders, director of the Animal Law Program at Vermont Law School. That fine, she says, is less than 2 percent of the maximum $306,504, considering the nature and number of offenses and the number of animals affected. (In October, the USDA awarded the university more than $12 million for research on sustainable agriculture. A spokesperson for USDA, Andre Bell, stated that the agency was unable to comment on enforcement actions but suggested that the Animal Welfare Act’s section concerning civil penalties be reviewed…
In October 2019, staff at Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute, a private research company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, found a two-and-a-half-year-old male cynomolgus macaque dead in its enclosure. A necropsy found “little to no” body fat, “marked dehydration,” and “prominently recessed eyes.”
In May 2022, the USDA fined Lovelace $6,200 for three violations between August and November 2019, two of which related to the deaths of this and another cynomolgus macaque. For these problems, Winders says, the USDA could have fined the company $293,733. In 2020, Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute earned more than $76 million in revenue…
In August 2022, the USDA fined a Bedford, Massachusetts, laboratory owned by Labcorp–which uses rabbits, dogs, pigs, and other animals in its drug development experiments–$3,375 for three violations dating from October 2018 to May 2021. One rabbit was euthanized because staff failed to handle it properly. Another was killed by an unidentified animal who died from injuries sustained while trying to escape from a restraint device. In that case, Winders says, the fine could have been up to $38,313. Last year, Labcorp earned more than $16 billion in revenue…
Since 2017, the USDA hasn’t collected any fines from licensed dog breeding facilities, even in cases of extreme cruelty or neglect, according to the ASPCA. For example, inspectors documented dozens of welfare violations at Envigo, a research breeding facility in Cumberland, Virginia, where more than 5,000 dogs were found crowded in barren, moldy cages. The USDA did not confiscate any dogs nor issue fines during five visits in the span of one year. The company agreed to shut down the facility in July, and the dogs were surrendered for adoption…
So far this year, the USDA has issued fines to 22 facilities–animal exhibitors, research institutions, and breeders–for violations of the Animal Welfare Act that include animal deaths, prolonged suffering, dirty enclosures, and inadequate veterinary care. More than half the fines, which the USDA posts online, were less than $9,000, and most were for veterinary care problems…
The USDA calculates fines using an internal penalty worksheet, which takes into account such factors as the severity of the violations, the facility’s history, and the size of the business, according to the Animal Welfare Act. National Geographic submitted a records request for the worksheet, but the agency declined to share it because it could allow licensees “to circumvent proposed penalties” and could “otherwise undermine investigations.”
“What will it take for the USDA to do something meaningful, if repeated animal deaths and animals forced to stand in their own feces for months on end isn’t enough?” Winders says, referring to the bats and sheep at Colorado State University. She adds that the USDA is making a show of trying to enforce the law. “People are continuing to violate the law–and in some cases, probably doing the calculations to say it’s worth the risk”…
Eric Kleiman, a researcher at the Animal Welfare Institute, criticizes the USDA’s fining system…. Kleiman says that the fines imposed on Colorado State, Lovelace Biomedical and the former Toxikon laboratory “are all paltry amounts because so many reasons including but not limited the severity of the violations–all involving animals deaths–the deep pockets and history… at each of these rich research facilities and institutions”
Kleiman’s criticism echoes a 2005 report by the OIG calling for higher fines for research facilities violating the Animal Welfare Act. It pointed out that the amounts don’t vary according to whether the offender is “a small farmer that breeds dogs” or “a research facility with billions in assets,” making penalties for larger facilities “negligible”…
Kleiman believes that the USDA must rethink how it issues fines. However, he also believes that the agency as a whole, which Kleiman claims “has not adequately enforced the law” for many decades, should be overhauled. Kleiman states, “I cannot tell you how tired I am and other animal protection advocates of opining, one more time, about yet another [USDA] violation failure.” “Thirty years of OIG reports, Congressional scrutiny, public pressure, media [exposure] and yet, what really changes?”. SOURCE…
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