{"id":763689,"date":"2021-05-06T07:55:13","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T11:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=763689"},"modified":"2021-05-06T08:00:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T12:00:47","slug":"exposed-usda-now-only-partially-inspects-some-lab-animal-facilities-internal-documents-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=763689","title":{"rendered":"EXPOSED: USDA now only partially inspects some lab animal facilities, internal documents reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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USDA documents suggest what a 'focused inspection' entails. Instead of taking a full look at an institution\u2019s records, animals, and the facility itself. An inspector could just look at a sampling of paperwork, and not a single animal.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

DAVID GRIMM:<\/strong> In February 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) made a significant \u2014 and apparently secret \u2014 change to how it oversees laboratory animal welfare, Science has learned. Instead of fully inspecting all of the nearly 1100 facilities that house monkeys, rabbits, and other creatures used in biomedical research, it mandated partial \u201cfocused\u201d inspections for labs accredited by a private organization of veterinarians and scientists called AAALAC International.<\/p>\n

Such partial inspections violate the Animal Welfare Act, argues Katherine Meyer, director of Harvard Law School\u2019s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, which discovered the change after law student Brett Richey combed through more than 1000 pages of internal USDA documents. The federal law states that USDA must enforce \u201cminimum requirements for handling, housing, [and] feeding\u201d of research animals, as well as adequate veterinary care, Meyer notes. \u201cHow do you ensure that labs are in compliance with those standards if USDA is doing incomplete inspections?\u201d…<\/p>\n

Harvard\u2019s animal law clinic obtained the USDA documents\u2014including PowerPoint slides, FAQs, and email exchanges\u2014via a public records request, in the course of a separate effort to force the agency to update its welfare standards for research monkeys. In one document, USDA, citing concerns about workload, says it has \u201cmade it mandatory \u2026 for inspectors to perform focused inspection at AAALAC-accredited research facilities unless the research facility requested a full inspection.\u201d And, in a redacted line that Science has since uncovered, it adds, \u201cThis focused inspection counts as the facility\u2019s annual inspection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other USDA documents suggest what a \u201cfocused inspection\u201d entails. Instead of taking a full look at an institution\u2019s records, animals, and the facility itself (such as air conditioning units and surgery rooms) every year, an inspector only needs to look at one of those aspects or a sampling of them, according to a USDA PowerPoint. \u201cAn inspector could just look at a sampling of paperwork\u2014and not a single animal,\u201d Meyer argues…<\/p>\n

The internal USDA documents also imply the new policy is confidential. The guidelines are \u201cfor official use, internal only,\u201d reads one FAQ. \u201cThere will be no stakeholder announcement,\u201d and the details will not be included in USDA\u2019s official inspection guidelines, it continues. The agency also made no mention of the changes at a conference last month for heads of animal care facilities and others responsible for lab animal welfare…<\/p>\n

Meyer argues that AAALAC itself is problematic. She and others in the animal advocacy community have long contended that the organization is not an appropriate substitute for USDA because it only inspects institutions every 3 years, is made up of many of the same people that run animal research facilities, and\u2014unlike USDA\u2014schedules inspections in advance rather than showing up unannounced. (AAALAC did not respond to repeated requests for comment.)<\/p>\n

Over the past 5 years, USDA reports have cited several AAALAC-accredited facilities for critical violations of the Animal Welfare Act, including pain relievers not given in a timely manner and unmonitored animals bleeding to death inside their cages… Because AAALAC inspections are confidential\u2014even to USDA\u2014the agency could be giving such labs a minimal inspection and a \u201cclean bill of health\u201d under the new policy, Meyer says.<\/p>\n

Whether that is actually happening is unclear. USDA has inspected 322 research facilities since its new guidelines took effect, an internal document reveals. Of the 151 that the agency believed were AAALAC accredited, 91 got focused inspections… But inspectors are not to note in their report what aspect of a facility they looked at, internal documents indicate. So an outsider would not be able to tell whether USDA missed potentially critical animal welfare violations because, for example, it didn\u2019t look at animals that year. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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