Envigo Plea Deal Sets Record

Biomedical company Envigo made headlines in 2022 for atrocious conditions documented at its Virginia beagle-breeding facility, accumulating over 60 citations for noncompliance with the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) within one year. (See AWI Quarterly, fall 2022.) During that year, the US Department of Agriculture failed to confiscate a single animal or issue a single fine. Finally, in June, following a Department of Justice investigation, Envigo RMS LLC pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the AWA, and sister company Envigo Global Services pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act. Their parent company, Inotiv, guaranteed payment of a record $35 million in penalties, including $11 million for conspiring to violate the AWA. This is the largest fine ever secured in an AWA case, but it is still a fraction of the potential fine for AWA violations of this magnitude ($10,000 per violation, per animal, per day of offense) that the USDA could have imposed through its enforcement efforts, and it amounts to less than 1.3 percent of Inotiv’s reported assets last year. Per the plea agreement, all Inotiv entities are barred from breeding or selling dogs, but the company retains the right to possess and experiment on dogs over 3 months old and keeps its license to breed and sell other species, including nonhuman primates and rabbits.

Program Terms: Animals in Laboratories

AWI Quarterly Terms: Government/Legal