Farm Bill Amendment Weakens Animal Welfare Act To Exclude Most
Animals Used in Labs from Humane Protection; Coalition Urges Defeat
Contact: Nancy Blaney of the Working Group to Preserve the
Animal Welfare Act, 703-521-1689
Tina Nelson of the American Anti-Vivisection Society, 215-887-0816
WASHINGTON, May 2 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today Congress will come
one step closer to making the U.S. the only country with animal
protection laws to exclude most research animals from the
protection of the law. The Conference Report to the Farm Bill,
which the House will consider today, includes an amendment offered
by Senator Helms that denies the Animal Welfare Act's (AWA)
requirements for humane care to 95 percent of research animals,
i.e., birds, rats, and mice, from receiving humane care. Instead
of using hearings and debates before making a significant and
controversial change to the AWA, Senator Helms introduced an
amendment that passed in the Senate by voice vote with only a few
members present. This amendment is now part of the Farm Bill.
One of the reasons Congress broadened the AWA in 1970 was to
stop the widespread abuse of animals used by researchers. The AWA
requires researchers to provide humane care and consider non-animal
alternatives for warm-blooded animals used in research. To ensure
that these standards are met, USDA has the enforcement power to
inspect research facilities.
A majority of scientists and many scientific organizations
support AWA coverage for birds, rats, and mice, recognizing that
good animal care is essential to good science.
As a result of this undebated amendment, there is no legal duty
for anyone who uses birds, rats, and mice in research to treat them
with humane care. Within the past few months, reports of abuse of
these species in research facilities have proliferated, including
several incidents at the University of North Carolina. At this
University, an undercover investigator documented repeated animal
welfare violations involving these animals.
It is critical that birds, rats, and mice remain protected under
the AWA. Otherwise, there will be no standards of care, no
requirement to consider non-animal alternatives, and no enforcement
mechanism to prevent these violations from occurring. There will,
however, be grave consequences for the quality of science and for
the credibility of the United States within the worldwide research
community.
Nancy Blaney, coordinator of the Working Group to Preserve the
AWA, a coalition of animal protection organizations, stated,
"Clearly the National Association for Biomedical Research, which
pushed this amendment, doesn't want USDA to see what is happening
to these species in the nation's laboratories. What are they
hiding?"
Tina Nelson, executive director of the American Anti-Vivisection
Society, stated, "We urge Congress not to approve the farm bill
with the Helms Amendment. This unconscionable amendment is a
disaster for 20 million research animals now permanently excluded
from the very basic standards of humane care and treatment
established under the AWA. This may very well damage the
reputation of U.S. laboratories among researchers throughout the
world."
The Working Group to Preserve the Animal Welfare Act consists of
the following organizations: Alternatives Research & Development
Foundation, American Anti-Vivisection Society, American Humane
Association, Doris Day Animal League, Humane Society of the United
States, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals, and the Society for Animal Protective Legislation.
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