Alliance Requesting OIG to Recommence Audit of USDA’s Enforcement Efforts of Animal Welfare Act
Due to extensive lobbying efforts on the part of the Alliance in 2019, USDA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) agreed to conduct an audit to evaluate the performance of USDA in regards to its enforcement of the federal Animal Welfare Act at commercial dog breeding facilities. This Audit has finally been completed and the results are now public.  
 
The OIG Audit correctly exposed that USDA “did not consistently address complaints it received and did not adequately document the results of its follow-up.” The OIG emphasized that the “complaint process is inconsistent and lacks transparency.” We are grateful that OIG has instructed USDA to finally correct this issue.
 
Regrettably, the Audit failed to consider the most serious concerns that the Alliance had communicated in a letter to Inspector General Phyllis Fong. Letter   Attachment to Letter 
 
These most egregious concerns included USDA enacting rules without going through the federal rulemaking process in violation of 5. U.S.C. Section 553, aiding and abetting substandard dog breeders in circumventing state and municipal laws, and concealing material facts and making false representations on federal inspection reports which are violations of 18. U.S.C Section 1001.
 
Unfortunately, USDA made the decision to cease inspections due to COVID just as the OIG Audit was initiated.  OIG correctly points out in the Audit that they were unable to accompany Animal Care personnel in an attempt to monitor and to review inspection procedures.  What is not noted in the OIG Audit, however, is that no other division within the USDA, including its Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, halted on-site inspections due to COVID other than inspections of puppy mills. In addition, many other states, who conduct inspections of commercial dog breeders, never ceased on-site inspections due to COVID including the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
It is believed that USDA discontinued inspections so that its inspectors could not be accompanied by OIG auditors.
Regardless of whether the cessation of on-site inspections was intentional, in order to avoid the scrutiny of an OIG Audit, or truly due to COVID, it is imperative that OIG re-open its Audit now that USDA is once again conducting on-site inspections.
 
It is for this reason that the Alliance is requesting OIG to recommence its Audit so it can more accurately assess USDA’s inspection process by accompanying USDA inspectors during on-site visits to puppy mills. Without such onsite reviews by OIG, animal welfare concerns cannot be fully investigated and addressed.    
 
The precipitous drop in citations over the past 5 years, and only one legal action being filed against a commercial dog breeder since 2017, should be compelling motivation for OIG to re-open its Audit of USDA.   
 
The Alliance is also lobbying Congress asking Congressional members to request a recommencement of the Audit. This is especially imperative due to USDA’s total disregard to the directions given to USDA by Congress in the Congressional Report accompanying the FY 2020 Appropriations Bill.  USDA was directed by Congress “to include every violation its inspectors find and never to frustrate the Committee’s oversight activities by using so-called teachable moments or other means of not reporting violations.”  This use of the “teachable moments” rule is especially egregious as USDA adopted this rule without going through the federal rule making process and continues to utilize such a rule in direct disregard to the instructions given to USDA by Congress.  
 
We will keep you advised of our efforts to re-open the OIG Audit.