Analyses and Reports on USDA Enforcement

The US Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS), through its Animal Care program, is responsible for inspecting the facilities of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) licensees and registrants and enforcing compliance with the law. Enforcement of the AWA by USDA-APHIS has, however, historically been lackluster and ineffectual. Indeed, the agency has a longstanding pattern of issuing citations for noncompliance with no real repercussions.

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Trends in Animal Welfare Act Enforcement

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The USDA Office of Inspector General (OIG)—whose roles include to “investigate, detect, and prevent fraud, waste, and mismanagement” within the department’s programs and operations—has acknowledged this reality in a number of audit reports spanning decades.

• The OIG’s 1995 and 2005 audit reports on USDA-APHIS’s inspection and enforcement activities both found that fines issued by the agency for AWA violations were so inconsequential that violators considered them to be “a normal cost of conducting business rather than a deterrent for violating the law.”
• Similarly, the OIG’s 2010 audit report on problematic dog breeders concluded that USDA-APHIS’s enforcement process was ineffective against these dealers, that violations were not adequately reported (and thus failed to support enforcement actions), and that the agency misapplied guidelines in order to lower penalties for AWA violators.
• Based on the OIG’s 2025 report on commercial dog breeders, it appears that these deficiencies have not been resolved in the intervening 15 years. This report noted that agency officials cited budgetary constraints and staffing shortages in the face of an overwhelming workload as issues impacting investigation and enforcement processes. The report concluded that “inconsistent and untimely inspections” by USDA-APHIS may result in continued AWA violations.

AWI has also chronicled in reports, letters to government officials, media outreach, and AWI Quarterly articles, the USDA’s lax enforcement of the AWA throughout the years. The reports below are based on original AWI analyses and highlight the USDA’s continued failure to adequately enforce the AWA.

• Trends in Animal Welfare Act Enforcement: 2020–2025, AWI Report, October 2025
• Administration Persists with Deconstruction of Animal Welfare Act: 2016–2018, AWI Quarterly, Summer 2019
• USDA Urgently Needs Upward Trajectory in Enforcement of Animal Protection Laws: 2014–2020, AWI Quarterly, Spring 2021
• Total Budgets, Critical Citations, Stipulated Penalties, and USDA Inspector Findings for Institutions Operating National Primate Research Centers, AWI Factsheet, February 2024