APHIS Removes Guideline on Self-Reporting from Animal Welfare Act Inspection Guide

APHIS Removes Guideline on Self-Reporting from Animal Welfare Act Inspection Guide

On December 15, 2017, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) posted the Tech Note “Incentives for Identifying, Reporting, Correcting, and Preventing Noncompliance with the Animal Welfare Act”. The Tech Note described an incentive program that recognized licensees and registrants who routinely monitored their activities and took appropriate and timely action to address noncompliant items.  

APHIS’ Animal Care program is rescinding this guideline, and the Tech Note on incentives (which was updated in May 2018), as it is no longer representative of the current agency policy for documenting Animal Welfare Act non-compliances. Animal Care has removed the Incentives Tech Note from its website; removed the Self-Reporting section from the Inspection Guide and updated its inspector training materials to reflect the Inspection Guide changes.

Animal Care remains committed to encouraging the regulated community to continue proactively identifying, reporting, and correcting preventable animal welfare issues which may occur at their facilities. Animal Care inspectors are available to engage with Animal Welfare Act licensees and registrants whenever they discover a potential noncompliance and offer a variety of other tools to assist with addressing compliance challenges, such as compliance support services and educational materials to support efforts to better adhere to the federal animal welfare standards.

Animal Care is dedicated to ensuring the humane treatment of animals by building relationships with and services for the regulated community, partners, and stakeholders.   Animal Care will continue to work with our registrants and licensees to efficiently, effectively and fairly administer the Animal Welfare Act.