USDA Animal Care Creates New Process for Appealing Animal Welfare Act Inspection Reports

 

 

USDA Animal Care has established a new process for licensees/registrants regulated under the Animal Welfare Act who wish to appeal something that has been cited on their USDA inspection report.

 

Our goal is threefold: to bring about quicker appeals resolutions; to ensure consistency in the appeals process; and to ensure that subject matter experts are involved in reviewing each appeal.

 

All facilities regulated under the Animal Welfare Act undergo routine, unannounced inspections. During each inspection, our inspectors cite on the inspection report anything that is not in compliance with the standards set forth in the Animal Welfare Act regulations. These inspection reports are made available on our website as public information. Sometimes, however, a regulated facility will disagree with one or more of the noncompliant items that were cited on a particular report, and they will file an appeal with us.

 

The revised appeals process, effective immediately, is as follows:

 

1. If, during an inspection, a facility operator has questions or concerns about any of the noncompliant items cited by the inspector, the facility operator should bring the issue up during the inspection and/or exit briefing. If the matter is resolved at that time, the inspector will modify the citation, remove it altogether or leave it as originally written.
2. If the facility operator and the inspector are unable to resolve the matter, or if the facility later decides to question the report, the facility operator should send a detailed, written appeal to the regional director in the appropriate Animal Care regional office. We must receive this appeal within 21 days of the facility receiving the finalized inspection report. If the appeal is received after the 21-day period, it will be rejected.
3. If no appeal is filed, we will make the inspection report publicly available on our website 21 days from the date it is finalized. If the inspection report is appealed, the inspection report will not be publicly available until a final decision on the appeal is made.
4. An Animal Care appeals team will review each appeal. Each team consists of a director from one region and an assistant director from the other region – plus an Animal Care field or staff veterinarian who serves as a subject matter expert, based on the specifics of the appeal. Within three weeks of receiving an appeal, the assigned team will either make a final decision or request more information. All decisions made by the appeals teams are final and represent USDA’s final determination of compliance. If the inspection report is amended, only the amended report will be made available online.

 

We realize that disagreements are a natural part of regulatory oversight, and our inspectors understand that regulated facilities have the right to appeal inspection findings. We are committed to ensuring that the appeals process is objective and thorough, while not resulting in reprisal against any facility. The new appeals process is a way to streamline and improve decision making so that we can better serve the regulated community, general public and the animals.

 

We have posted a factsheet explaining our new appeals process here: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/animal_welfare/2014/appeals_process.pdf.

 

 

At USDA Animal Care, ensuring the welfare of the animals we regulate is at the heart of everything we do.