The New York Times published an eye-opening report last month on animal-welfare abuses at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb.

The center is run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and employs a variety of breeding and surgical techniques intended to make cows, pigs and sheep leaner, bigger, more plentiful and more profitable. The center has had its successes, but as the Times reported, thousands of animals there have been subjected to illness, pain and premature death. Of the 580,000 animals the center has housed in the past 30 years, at least 6,500 have starved to death. More than 600 have died from a single, painful type of infection.

Several hundred cows were included in ill-fated, long-running experiment intended to boost the odds they would produce twins, rather than single calves. Roughly 95 percent of the female calves with male siblings were born with deformed genitals, and many of the twins died at birth as their eight legs became entangled. After 20 years of experimentation, the death rate for the twin calves was still four times that of traditional, single calves, and the project was abandoned.

The USDA's response to these findings has been less than encouraging.

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, now the U.S. secretary of agriculture, has ordered a few changes at the center and other USDA-run facilities. The department, for example, is now conducting an internal review of its research practices, and it has named an ombudsman to investigate complaints about inhumane treatment of animals.

But the administrator of the department's Agricultural Research Service, Chavonda Jacobs-Young, has said the agency intends to "look at" existing protocols, and will be "re-emphasizing" its priorities and "recommitting" itself to animal welfare. That sounds like an endorsement of the status quo. The department should develop new protocols, adjust those priorities and demonstrate a stronger commitment to animal welfare.

Fortunately, Congress is now considering long-overdue legislation that would expand the federal Animal Welfare Act, which for 49 years has required the humane treatment of cats and dogs used in research. The bill would broaden the Animal Welfare Act to include that same sort of protection for farm animals used in research.

One problem: The Animal Welfare Act is enforced by the USDA's own Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service — a division that has repeatedly dropped the ball in the policing of privately run puppy mills. In fact, the USDA's own inspector general has audited the division four times since 1992, each time concluding that APHIS isn't doing its job. In the most recent review, in 2010, the inspector general faulted APHIS for inspectors reducing — not increasing — the fines imposed on repeat violators; for its reluctance to issue citations for certain types of violations; and for its failure to confiscate dogs that were in immediate danger.

If APHIS inspectors can't be trusted to effectively police privately owned facilities, what are the chances they will suddenly become diligent watchdogs when called upon to oversee their colleagues in USDA-run facilities? It should go without saying that all animals subject to research and experimentation should be treated humanely. Sadly, though, it does need to be said — and also put into law.

Congress should pass the proposed legislation, with the proviso that the USDA delegate the inspection of its own facilities to other state or federal agencies.

Source - desmoinesregister.com