The obama administration’s top animal accomplishments: Puppy Mills



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THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S TOP ANIMAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

  1. Puppy Mills – The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized a rule on September 18, 2013 closing a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act Regulations to require that dealers who sell puppies and other warm blooded animals as pets sight unseen, including over the Internet, be regulated. The rule extended federal oversight and standards of care to thousands of puppies and other warm-blooded animals. The USDA also issued a final rule on August 15, 2014 prohibiting the import of puppies into the U.S. for resale.




  1. Chimpanzees – On June 16, 2015, in response to a 2010 legal petition by The HSUS, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) issued a final rule that eliminated the split listing of chimpanzees and now all chimpanzees – whether captive or wild – are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), ending a decades-long loophole that allowed their exploitation for biomedical research and the pet and entertainment trade. On January 23, 2013, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would phase out biomedical research grants involving chimpanzees in laboratories, end chimpanzee breeding, and retire the vast majority of government-owned chimpanzees to sanctuaries. On November 18, 2015, NIH announced it would end the use of chimps in research, and reversed its decision to keep 50 for future research needs. These two decisions all but close the door on using chimpanzees in medical research. On August 11, 2016, NIH announced its plan for the retirement of all NIH-owned and –supported chimpanzees to Chimp Haven.




  1. Downer Cattle and Calves – President Obama personally announced during his first 50 days in office the downer cow final rule. USDA finalized a pending rule to end the slaughter of downed cows on March 14, 2009. A loophole remained, however, allowing downer calves to be slaughtered for human consumption. On June 13, 2016, the USDA finalized a rule to close this loophole. The rule requires all non-ambulatory disabled calves be promptly and humanely euthanized, and makes clear that the humane handling regulations apply to all animals as soon as they arrive at slaughter facilities.




  1. AWA Enforcement – Enforcement actions for violators of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) have steadily increased under the Obama Administration. President Obama has continued to increase funding levels for USDA enforcement of the AWA in his yearly budgets. On May 19, 2016, the USDA and Santa Cruz Biotechnology (SCBT), a notorious violator of the AWA, came to the largest settlement agreement in the history of the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, of $3.5 million. SCBT lost its license to operate as a dealer, as well as its registration to operate as a research facility with the USDA, essentially shutting the business down.




  1. Wildlife Trafficking:

  • Executive Order – On July 1, 2013, the President issued an Executive Order (EO) to enhance coordination of the U.S. government’s efforts to combat wildlife trafficking. The EO established a Presidential Task Force and Advisory Council, who have put forward recommendations and an implementation plan on how to combat wildlife trafficking.




  • Ivory – The FWS issued a final rule on June 6, 2016 that will curtail the commercial ivory trade in the U.S. with limited exceptions on interstate sales. The U.S. is the world’s second largest market for ivory product sales, behind China. The President also worked with China to establish an agreement, announced September 25, 2015, with the President of China to end the global trade in ivory.




  • Enforcement – The FWS stepped up its efforts to crack down on illegal wildlife trafficking and has conducted an operation to stop illegal wildlife trade over the Internet, called “Operation Cyberwild,” announced on January 6, 2012. In addition, the FWS, along with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has been targeting wildlife traffickers in rhinoceros horn in a very successful large-scale criminal enforcement initiative called, “Operation Crash,” initiated in February 2012. Perpetrators have been sentenced to significant terms of imprisonment and the forfeiture of millions of dollars.



  • Trophies – In both 2014 and 2015, the FWS suspended imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies taken in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. The FWS cited questionable management practices, a lack of effective law enforcement, and weak governance as reasons for the suspension. The result in both countries has been uncontrolled poaching and catastrophic population declines of African elephants.




  1. African Lions – The FWS released a final rule on December 23, 2015 listing the western and central African lion populations as endangered and the eastern and southern African lion populations as threatened, providing the necessary protections to this periling species. In addition, the final rule creates tougher standards for imports of lion trophies. The rule was in response to a petition submitted by The HSUS and coalition partners in 2011. FWS also issued a Director’s Order to ensure that permits issued for foreign and domestic wildlife are not granted to violators of wildlife laws.




  1. Big Cats— The FWS issued a final rule on April 6, 2016 withdrawing the Captive-bred Wildlife regulation exemption for generic tigers (mixed lineage tigers) to strengthen oversight and treat them the same as purebred tigers under the ESA. Generic tigers are no longer exempt from permitting requirements and as a result, it will be much harder for roadside zoos and breeders to engage in commercial activities with captive tigers. This additional federal oversight will also help ensure that captive tigers are not used to supply the illegal international trade in tiger parts. The USDA issued guidance on March 2, 2016 to its inspectors to start cracking down on public contact with infant tiger cubs (4 weeks and younger) and other exotic cats at exhibition facilities licensed under the Animal Welfare Act. Some roadside and traveling zoos allow the public to handle infant tiger cubs and other exotic cats who have been prematurely removed from their mother’s care. Additionally, the USDA has reopened the comment period on our 2013 petition to prohibit public contact with big cats, bears, and nonhuman primate, and has widened the scope of their inquiry to include any “dangerous animals.”




  1. Horse Soring – The USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG) conducted an investigation, released September 30, 2010, that led to several horse trainers being charged with criminal horse soring violations. In response to an OIG audit, the USDA released a proposed rule to crack down on horse soring on July 26, 2016. The rule would ban the action devices used as part of the soring process and end the corrupt industry self-policing scheme.




  1. Marine Mammals:

  • Belugas – The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) denied on August 5, 2013, Georgia Aquarium’s request to import 18 wild-caught belugas from Russia, which would have been a shift in course from a policy that has been in place for two decades that does not allow the capture of whales from the wild. In June 2016, Georgia Aquarium announced it will no longer import dolphins and beluga whales from the wild, except in rescue situations.




  • Protections for Right Whales – The NMFS issued a final rule on December 9, 2013 permanently extending existing speed limits for ships along the U.S. East Coast to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. Additionally, the NMFS denied a petition by the American Pilot’s Association to exempt federally-maintained port entrance channels from the seasonal ship speed limits put in place to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale on October 15, 2015.




  • Critical Habitat for Right Whales –The NMFS finalized a rule on January 27, 2016 to expand critical habitat for North Atlantic right whales by approximately 39,500 square miles to include vital calving grounds in the southeastern United States, as well as important feeding areas off the northeast coast.




  • Polar Bears – The U.S. Department of Interior designated more than 187,000 square miles of on-shore barrier islands, denning areas and offshore sea-ice as critical habitat for the threatened polar bear under the ESA on December 7, 2010.




  • Southern Resident Killer Whales – The NMFS issued a final rule on February 10, 2015 to include captive individuals within the ESA listing of Southern Resident killer whales, which will ensure that Lolita, the only surviving whale who was captured from the Southern Resident population and who now resides at the Miami, Florida Seaquarium, will be granted the same level of federal protection as her wild counterparts.



  • Dolphins – The NMFS issued an interim final rule on March 23, 2016 to enhance the requirements for documentation and training to support the “dolphin-safe” tuna label, and extending the standards to all countries.




  • Expansion of Pacific Ocean Sanctuary – Through an executive order announced June 17, 2014, the President closed off a large swath of the Pacific Ocean from fishing and energy exploration. The President expanded the existing Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument from 370,000 square nautical miles to 490,000 square nautical miles, making it the largest marine monument in the world. The sanctuary is home to tropical coral reefs and marine ecosystems and is expected to protect nearly two dozen types of marine mammals, along with threatened species of sea turtles. The rule went into effect on April 24, 2015.




  • Marine Mammals in International Fisheries – The NMFS issued a final rule on August 12, 2016 to protect marine mammals in international fisheries which would require U.S. trading partners to comply with U.S marine mammal conservation standards for incidental killing or serious injury of marine mammals due to fishing activities. Nations exporting fish and fish products to the U.S. would be required to demonstrate that killing or serious injury of marine mammals incidental to their fishing activities do not occur in excess of U.S. standards.




  1. Horse Transport – The USDA issued a final rule on September 7, 2011 to tighten the ban on the use of double-deck trailers to transport American horses to slaughter, closing a loophole in the humane horse transportation standards adopted by the Agency in 2006.




  1. Animal Fighting – The U.S. Postal Service issued a final rule on December 15, 2009 to revise mailing standards in order to harmonize them with animal fighting provisions of the AWA. This rule bars shipment of publications that cater to animal fighters, and has resulted in the shutdown of two of the three major national cockfighting magazines.




  1. CITES – The FWS worked to gain protection for numerous species at the March 2013 CITES conference, including tortoises and turtles, white tip sharks, porbeagle sharks, hammerhead sharks, and manta rays. The FWS has also worked to combat the increasing trade in ivory that has created a crisis situation for elephants and rhinos, by supporting the establishment of an Ivory Enforcement Task Force.




  1. Animal Travel – The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a final rule on July 2, 2014 that expands the DOT’s current requirement that air carriers report incidents involving the loss, injury or death of an animal during air transport to the Agency. It also expanded the definition of “animal” to include all cats and dogs transported by the carrier, regardless of whether the cat or dog is transported as a pet by their owner or as part of a commercial shipment, such as being shipped by a breeder.




  1. Service Animals – The DOJ issued a final rule on September 15, 2010 prohibiting wild animals from being used as service animals under the Americans with Disabilities Act.




  1. DOJ/Defense of Animal Welfare Laws – The DOJ has increasingly defended and protected animal welfare laws. In April 2010 the DOJ defended the federal Depiction of Animal Cruelty Law, which bans the commercial sale of videos depicting extreme and illegal acts of animal cruelty, before the U.S. Supreme Court. The DOJ also joined a lawsuit, arguing two companies – Hallmark Meat Packing and Westland Meat Company, Inc. –defrauded the federal government by violating the terms of their school lunch contracts, which required humane handling of animals.




  1. King Amendment – USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack publicly voiced concern on November 18, 2013 about the King Amendment, a provision in the House version of the 2013 Farm Bill that aimed to block state laws protecting farm animals.




  1. Wildlife Poisons – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) canceled the registration of mouse and rat poison products posing threats to children, pets and wildlife injured or killed from accidental exposure on January 29, 2013. The EPA also approved new labels on September 24, 2013 for Avitrol products, a harmful toxicant commonly used to kill birds, primarily pigeons and sparrows in urban areas as well as starlings and blackbirds on farms. These new labels implement improvements in required safety measure by imposing restrictions on how the poison may be used.




  1. Animal Welfare Act Transparency – The USDA began posting inspection reports online in May 2009 for animal dealers, exhibitors, and research facilities regulated under the AWA. It also posts annual reports from research facilities, including information on whether drugs were provided to animals in laboratories to relieve pain and distress.




  1. Snakes – The FWS issued a final rule on January 23, 2012 to list four species of large constrictor snakes as injurious under the Lacy Act – the Burmese python, Northern African python, Southern African python, and yellow anaconda. Including these snakes, especially the Burmese python was necessary, as evidenced by a report by the National Academy of Sciences that revealed that Burmese pythons had put a great American ecosystem, the Everglades, at grave risk – eliminating 99 percent of the areas small and medium-sized mammals. On June 24, 2014, FWS opened the rule for comment again requesting more information for the listing of the other five originally proposed species – the reticulated python, the DeSchauensee’s anaconda, the green anaconda, the Beni anaconda, and the boa constrictor. On March 10, 2015, FWS published a final rule to list all of the remaining five species as injurious except for the boa constrictor.




  1. Non-Animal Alternatives – The Obama Administration has invested in human biology based chemical assessment tools, specifically: a federal collaboration known as Tox21, involving the NIH, the EPA, and Food and Drug Administration. The program is aimed at developing better assessment methods for drugs and chemicals in the environment by developing methods based on human biology. For example, an initiative to build organs-on-a-chip is one way the Agencies are moving away from the use of animals in chemical and drug testing.




  1. Pet Food – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a final rule on September 10, 2015 that requires, for the first time ever, strict new standards and good manufacturing practices, encompassing basic issues such as sanitation and hazard analysis for companies that make pet food. The standards apply to all domestic and imported pet food, pet food, and the raw ingredients that make those products.




  1. U.S. MARC – The USDA’s updated Animal Welfare Action Plan outlines changes in policy, training and oversight throughout the Agriculture Research Service (ARS). One of the most noteworthy developments is an inspection pilot program between ARS and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), whereby ARS has voluntarily registered its animal research locations with APHIS, and APHIS is initiating periodic inspections of how it uses and cares for animals at those locations. On February 2, 2016, ARS updated its Animal Welfare Policy to apply the standards of care of the Animal Welfare Act to all ARS animal research. This is important oversight to ensure that the horrific treatment of animals that occurred at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center (U.S. MARC), uncovered by a New York Times exposé, never happens again.




  1. Trans-Pacific Partnership – The President negotiated the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement with 12 other countries throughout the Asia-Pacific region, and notified Congress of his intention to sign it on November 5, 2015. The Administration has stated that TPP will help to protect regions of the world by establishing the toughest environmental protections of any regional trade agreement. The agreement contains language to combat illegal wildlife trafficking, protect the marine environment and combat illegal fishing and harmful fisheries subsidies, and to protect forests from illegal logging.




  1. International Fisheries – On August 10, 2015, The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration proposed a rule to protect marine mammals in international fisheries by requiring U.S. trading partners to comply with U.S. marine mammal conservation standards for incidental killing or serious injury of marine mammal due to fishing activities. Nations exporting fish and fish products to the U.S. would be required to demonstrate that killing or serious injury of marine mammal incidental to their fishing activities do not occur in excess of U.S. standards.



  1. Alaska Hunting Regulations – In October 2015, the National Park Service (NPS) finalized a rule amending its regulations for sport hunting and trapping in National Preserves in Alaska. The FWS finalized a similar rule in August 2016 for Alaskan National Wildlife Refuges. These rules would prohibit controversial and scientifically unjustified killing methods on over 96 million acres of federal lands in Alaska including using airplanes to scout and shoot grizzly bears; luring grizzlies with pet food to get a point blank kill; killing wolf, black bear, and coyote mothers and their young at their dens; and trapping of grizzly and black bears with steel-jawed leghold traps and wire snares.




  1. Live Animal Use in Medical Training – The Pentagon announced plans on November 12, 2014 to halt the use of live animals in a variety of medical training programs. The military will be substituting live animals for realistic human dummies, developed by a research team from Boston. The training is designed to teach medical personnel how to administer anesthesia, resuscitate an unconscious person, and practice other life-saving measures.




  1. U.S. Sentencing Commission – The United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) issued an amendment to revise animal fighting penalties in the USSC Guidelines on April 15, 2016. The new guidelines provide an increase to the base offense level for animal fighting offenses from a range of 6 to 12 months to a more serious range of 21 to 27 months. The amendment also establishes a new, corresponding sentencing guideline range for anyone who attends an animal fighting venture with a minor under 16 years old, which was needed after the 2014 Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act was signed into law.




  1. Organic Animal Welfare – The USDA National Organic Program proposed a rule on April 13, 2016 to strengthen standards for animal welfare on organic farms, including an array of housing, husbandry, and management topics. The rule would prohibit certain painful practices, like tail docking of pigs and cattle and debeaking of birds, and would set minimum indoor and outdoor space requirements for egg-laying chickens. The rule also requires group housing for pigs. For all species, the rule requires outdoor access to soil, direct sunlight, fresh air, and clean water for drinking, and that shelters provided must allow enough space for animals to lie down, stand up, and fully stretch their limbs without touching other animals or the sides of the shelter.




  1. Shark Finning- NMFS finalized a rule on June 29, 2016 that implements the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 (SCA). The SCA prohibits any person from removing the fins of a shark at sea, possessing detached fins on board a fishing vessel, transferring detached fins between vessels at sea, or landing a shark without its fins naturally attached anywhere along the U.S. coastline. The final rule confirmed that state shark fin laws in California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Washington, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam are not preempted by federal law.




2/10/2018


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