Members of Congress are prodding the Department of Agriculture to strengthen its oversight of laboratory-animal welfare by raising fines for violations.
The proposal comes after a four-year period, from 2002 to 2006, when the agency doubled the annual number of citations, including those involving animal care, that it issued against research facilities. But the department has rarely fined offenders, and when it does, the fines are generally only a few thousand dollars. Unless the number and size of the penalties are raised, colleges and other facilities will face little incentive to improve compliance, say animal-welfare activists and at least one congressman.
Quoted: Holly McEntee, administrator of the Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, says inspectors seem better trained than in the past.