The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sued the agency in court in Washington on Friday, arguing that dealers who flout the Animal Welfare Act have gone unpunished.
Dog dealers are violating an animal welfare law without being penalized by the US Department of Agriculture, an animal rights group claimed during a lawsuit.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sued the agency in court in Washington on Friday, arguing that dealers who flout the Animal Welfare Act have gone unpunished. The ASPCA alleges that the Department of Agriculture has adopted “education and cooperation” efforts as a substitute for enforcement. The USDA refers to dealers as those that breed dogs or act as brokers in their sale or transport.
The department has “imposed no statutory penalties against a dog dealer since 2017” despite evidence that quite 1,000 violations happen annually , the ASPCA says within the suit. In one case, a licensed dealer avoided punishment despite keeping dogs in housing with wire flooring that hurt a number of them so badly they were unable to face , the group says.
It sued the Department of Agriculture under the executive Procedure Act, arguing that its embrace of education initiatives in lieu of concrete penalties violates federal law. The agency’s inaction “has enabled licensed dog dealers to commit horrible abuses with none repercussions,” the ASPCA claims.
The USDA referred an invitation for discuss the suit to its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which is additionally named as a defendant. A spokesman for the service said he wouldn’t discuss pending litigation.
The case is American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Plant Health Inspection Service,U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
