{"id":541,"date":"2023-04-25T17:19:23","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T21:19:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/?p=541"},"modified":"2023-04-25T17:19:23","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T21:19:23","slug":"aphis-predicts-farm-animals-could-ultimately-be-subject-to-awa-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2023\/04\/25\/aphis-predicts-farm-animals-could-ultimately-be-subject-to-awa-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"APHIS Predicts Farm Animals Could Ultimately Be Subject to AWA Regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Animal and Plant Inspection Health Service (APHIS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture sub-agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) , 7 U.S.C. \u00a7 2131, et seq.\u00a0 In connection with its “Strategic Plan” for 2023-27,\u00a0 APHIS issued a Strategic Foresight Report<\/a> that “examines 10 societal, environmental, and technological trends that the Agency must be prepared to navigate. ”\u00a0 One such trend is “[e]volving perceptions around animal welfare and wildlife in human society.”<\/p>\n

The animal welfare segment of the strategic foresight report contained some interesting remarks about farm animals, pets and the probability that farm animals will ultimately be subject to regulation under the AWA.\u00a0 That segment listed what APHIS says it “knows today:”<\/p>\n

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As can be seen, APHIS sees an increasing trend in farm animals being recognized as pets.\u00a0 Next to what APHIS says it knows today is what APHIS expects to “see ahead:”<\/p>\n

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These observations are quite interesting.\u00a0 Evidently, APHIS believes that, as more people make livestock into pets, that will be the fulcrum for the agency to expand its regulation to include farm animals.\u00a0 As APHIS summed it up in the “Shifting Values” section of the report:<\/p>\n

In the future, more Americans will live in urban regions. They will seek healthier nutrient-dense products, and many will agree that livestock and wildlife should be provided the same rights as domesticated pets. This will add public, and by extension Congressional, pressure on APHIS to prioritize the use of humane animal agricultural practices.\u00a0 As the list of animals considered to be pets expands, farms could potentially fall under regulation of the Animal Welfare Act.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This prediction remains to be seen.\u00a0 At present, farm animals are not covered by the AWA.\u00a0 See<\/em> 7 U.S.C. \u00a7 2132(g)(3) (definition of \u201canimal\u201d excludes \u201cother farm animals, such as, but not limited to livestock or poultry, used or intended for use as food or fiber, or livestock or poultry used or intended for use for improving animal nutrition, breeding, management, or production efficiency or for improving the quality of food or fiber\u201d).\u00a0 It would take an act of Congress to change this\u00a0 state of affairs, which has existed for the better part of the last 60 years.\u00a0 And it is far from clear that there is any significant political support for such a change, despite APHIS’ inclusion of a photograph of someone’s pet goat in its discussion of “Shifting Values:”<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Animal and Plant Inspection Health Service (APHIS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture sub-agency charged with administering and enforcing the federal Animal Welfare Act (AWA) , 7 U.S.C. \u00a7 2131, et seq.\u00a0 In connection with its “Strategic Plan” for 2023-27,\u00a0 APHIS issued a Strategic Foresight Report that “examines 10 societal, environmental, and technological trends … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “APHIS Predicts Farm Animals Could Ultimately Be Subject to AWA Regulation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":317,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[108,49,107,109,5,224],"ppma_author":[697],"class_list":["post-541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-and-plant-health-inspection-service","tag-animal-law","tag-animal-welfare-act","tag-aphis","tag-john-simpson","tag-u-s-department-of-agriculture"],"authors":[{"term_id":697,"user_id":317,"is_guest":0,"slug":"jmsimpson","display_name":"John M. Simpson","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/simpsonjohn-125x150.jpg","author_category":"","last_name":"Simpson","first_name":"John M.","job_title":"","user_url":"https:\/\/www.duanemorris.com\/attorneys\/johnmsimpson.html","description":"Read John's bio.<\/a>"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}