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The US Department of Agriculture is only carrying out partial, rather than full, inspections of certain animal facilities as part of its animal welfare oversight, Science reports today (May 5). The change, which was made in February 2019, was not announced publicly, and has only been revealed thanks to a public records request by researchers at Harvard University’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic.
The clinic’s director, Katherine Meyer, tells Science that the use of partial inspections could violate the Animal Welfare Act, which mandates that research animals must be kept in facilities that meet certain minimum welfare standards. “How do you ensure that labs are in compliance with those standards if USDA is doing incomplete inspections?” she says.
Internal documents obtained by the Harvard group suggest that the reductions were made due to an excessive workload for USDA staff, and pertain in particular to labs already ...
