Stop USDA’s Failure to Protect Animals

The Animal Welfare Act was created to protect animals from cruelty, neglect, and suffering. But a disturbing recent analysis from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) reveals that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is failing to do its job — and animals are paying the price.

AWI’s report found that USDA enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act has dramatically weakened in recent years. Instead of cracking down on facilities that violate federal animal welfare laws, the agency has increasingly let offenders off with little more than warnings. Fines have plummeted, even as facilities with serious or repeated violations continue operating.

That means animals trapped in puppy mills, roadside zoos, breeding operations, laboratories, research facilities, and other federally regulated operations are being left to suffer in filthy, dangerous, and inhumane conditions — often without meaningful consequences for the people responsible.

Animals have been found with untreated injuries, inadequate food and water, unsafe enclosures, and severe veterinary neglect. Yet too many facilities continue operating business as usual because USDA enforcement has become weak and inconsistent.

This is completely unacceptable. A law without enforcement is nothing more than words on paper. When the USDA fails to hold violators accountable, it sends a dangerous message that animal suffering can continue without consequence. Facilities that repeatedly violate the Animal Welfare Act should not be allowed to escape with weak warnings and empty promises to improve. Every failure to act leaves vulnerable animals trapped in misery — confined in filthy cages, denied proper medical care, and subjected to pain, stress, and neglect that no living being should endure.

The Animal Welfare Act was passed because Americans overwhelmingly believe animals deserve basic protections from cruelty and neglect. 

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins must take immediate action to restore strong enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act. That means conducting rigorous inspections, issuing meaningful penalties against violators as allowed by law, improving transparency, and suspending or revoking licenses for chronic violators where legally appropriate.

The USDA cannot continue turning a blind eye while animals suffer behind closed doors. Every day the USDA fails to act, more animals are left vulnerable to cruelty and neglect.

Please sign the petition to call on Secretary Rollins and the USDA to fully enforce the Animal Welfare Act and hold animal abusers accountable. Weak enforcement enables suffering. Strong enforcement saves lives.

The petition to USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins reads: Fully enforce the Animal Welfare Act and hold repeat violators accountable. Animals suffering in puppy mills, roadside zoos, laboratories, research facilities, and other regulated operations deserve real protection — not weak warnings and empty oversight. The USDA must strengthen inspections, impose meaningful penalties, and stop allowing animal cruelty to go unchecked.

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Source:

https://awionline.org/news/new-analysis-animal-welfare-act-enforcement-deteriorates-following-scotus-ruling/