Order Code RS22493
August 10, 2006
CRS Report for Congress
Received through the CRS Web
The Animal Welfare Act:
Background and Selected Legislation
Geoffrey S. Becker
Specialist in Agricultural Policy
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Summary
The Animal Welfare Act was first passed in 1966 to prevent pets from being stolen
and sold to research laboratories, and to improve the treatment and well-being of
animals intended for research. Congress has amended the act five times since then to
strengthen its provisions, expand coverage to more animals and activities, and curtail
animal fighting, among other things. Some animal protection groups support measures
to further expand federal regulation of animal treatment. Such bills in the 109th
Congress include those addressing animal fighting (H.R. 817, S. 3820), dog and cat
protection (H.R. 2669, S. 1139, H.R. 5229, S. 451), and pet evacuation in disasters (H.R.
3858, and S. 2548), among others. This report will be updated if significant
developments ensue.
The Animal Welfare Act (AWA; 7 U.S.C. 2131 et seq.) is intended to ensure the
humane treatment of animals that are intended for research, bred for commercial sale,
exhibited to the public, or being commercially transported. Under the AWA, businesses
and others with animals covered by the law must be licensed or registered, and they must
adhere to minimum standards of care. Farm animals are among the animals not covered
by the act, which nonetheless provides a broad set of statutory protections for animals.1
The law was first passed in 1966 following several years of lobbying by animal
welfare organizations and growing public outcry over allegations that large numbers of
pets were being “dognapped” for sale to medical research laboratories. Congress
amended the original law in 1970, 1976, 1985, 1990, and 2002. These amendments
generally were intended to expand its scope or to clarify various provisions.
1 Numerous other federal laws seek to protect other classes of animals, often those from the wild.
Examples include the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Lacey Act as amended, and the Wild
Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. These and the others are described, with legal citations,
in CRS Report 94-731A, Brief Summaries of Federal Animal Protection Statutes, by Henry
Cohen.
Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service (APHIS) administers the AWA. The House and Senate Agriculture Committees
have exercised primary legislative jurisdiction over the act and its amendments.
Key Provisions2
Animals Covered. The act applies to any live or dead dog, cat, nonhuman
primate, guinea pig, hamster, rabbit, or other warmblooded animal determined by the
Secretary of Agriculture to be for research or exhibition, or used as a pet. The AWA
explicitly excludes birds, rats, and mice bred for research; horses not used for research;
and other farm animals used in the production of food and fiber.3 Animals sold in retail
facilities are not covered, unless they are wild or exotic animals. Cold-blooded animals
like fish and reptiles also are excluded from coverage.
Businesses and Activities Covered. Generally, animal dealers and exhibitors
must obtain a license, for which an annual fee is charged. APHIS does not issue a license
until it inspects the facility and finds it to be in full compliance with its regulations. If a
facility loses its license, it cannot continue its regulated activity. Those who conduct
research, and general carriers that transport regulated animals, do not need a license but
must still register with APHIS and undergo periodic inspections. Specific details are as
follows.
Dealers, including pet and laboratory animal breeders and brokers, auction operators,
and anyone who sells exotic or wild animals, or dead animals or their parts, must have an
APHIS license for that activity. So-called Class A licensees are breeders who deal only
in animals they breed and raise; all others are called Class B licensees. Exempt from the
law and regulations are retail pet stores, those who sell pets directly to pet owners, hobby
breeders, animal shelters, and boarding kennels.
Exhibitors must be licensed by APHIS as such. These so-called Class C licensees
include zoos, marine mammal shows, circuses, carnivals, and promotional and
educational exhibits. The law and regulations exempt agricultural shows and fairs, horse
shows, rodeos, pet shows, game preserves, hunting events, and private collectors who do
not exhibit, among others.
Animal transporters must be registered, including general carriers (e.g., airlines,
railroads, and truckers). Businesses that contract to transport animals for compensation
are considered dealers and must have licenses.
Research facilities must be registered. They include state and local government-run
research institutions, drug firms, universities, diagnostic laboratories, and facilities that
study marine mammals. Federal facilities, elementary and secondary schools, and
agricultural research institutions are among those exempt from registration.
2 Unless noted, sources on the AWA are various materials provided by USDA’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
3 For example, rabbits for food are exempt from AWA coverage; those for pets are not.

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Animal fighting generally is prohibited by the AWA. The ban includes dogfights
and bear and raccoon baiting; sponsors and promoters are subject to penalties. The AWA
also bans cockfights, except in the states where they are not prohibited by state law,
namely Louisiana and New Mexico.

Standards. All licensed and registered entities must comply with all USDA-
APHIS regulations, including recordkeeping and published standards of care. These
standards deal with humane handling, shelter, space requirements, feeding, watering,
sanitation, ventilation, veterinary care, and transport. (AWA regulations are at 9 C.F.R.
§1.1 et seq.)
Oversight and Enforcement
APHIS’s Animal Care (AC) program oversees the AWA, under which more than
10,000 facilities were licensed or registered in FY2005. That year, AC had total staff of
approximately 180 and an annual budget of nearly $17 million.4
APHIS Animal Care officials make unannounced inspections of registered and
licensed facilities to ensure compliance with all rules. Under the AWA, research facilities
are to be inspected at least annually. Inspection frequency for other AWA-regulated
facilities is based on risk; for example, moderate-risk facilities are to be visited about once
yearly. APHIS inspectors also conduct searches to identify unlicensed or unregistered
facilities. Failure to correct deficiencies can result in confiscation of animals, fines,
cease-and-desist orders, or license suspensions.
AC inspectors conducted more than 18,000 inspections during FY2005, which
included pre-licensing as well as compliance inspections, according to APHIS. The
agency also formally investigated 575 alleged violations of the act in FY2005, which led
to 391 cases submitted for civil administrative actions. Eighty-seven cases were resolved
through civil penalty agreements and another 82 were resolved by an administrative law
judge. Fines in these cases totaled $1.1 million, APHIS reported.
In each of the past several fiscal years, about 70% of all facilities were in “complete
compliance” with AWA requirements at the time of their most recent inspection,
according to USDA budget documents.
Legislative History
Original Law. Although long known as the Animal Welfare Act, the original law
was passed simply as P.L. 89-544, the Act of August 24, 1966. The law requires dealers
in dogs and cats for research purposes to obtain a USDA license and to abide by USDA-
set humane treatment requirements. It also requires a research facility to register with
USDA only if it uses dogs or cats and either (1) purchases them in interstate commerce
or (2) receives federal research money. The law authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture
to set humane handling standards for guinea pigs, nonhuman primates, rabbits and
4 A portion of these resources are also used to administer the Horse Protection Act (15 U.S.C.
§§1821-1831), which makes it a crime to exhibit or transport any “sore” horse, i.e. one whose
feet have been injured to alter its gait.

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hamsters as well as dogs and cats — but only dealers and research facilities with dogs and
cats are subject to these standards. Farmers and pet owners are among those exempted
from the law. Other provisions spell out recordkeeping requirements, enforcement
authorities and penalties for noncompliance.
Animal Welfare Act of 1970. P.L. 91-579 expands animal coverage to include
all warm-blooded animals determined by the Secretary to be used for experimentation or
exhibition, except horses not used in research and farm animals used in food and fiber
research. The 1970 law also incorporates exhibitors; defines research facilities; and
exempts from coverage retail pet stores, agricultural fairs, rodeos, dog and cat shows.
Animal Welfare Act Amendments of 1976. P.L. 94-279 was passed mainly
to clarify and expand previous regulations covering animal transport and commerce. This
act for the first time addresses animal fighting, making it illegal to exhibit or transport
interstate animals used in fighting ventures, such as dogs and roosters. Hunting animals
are generally made exempt, as are live fighting birds for states where such fighting is
legal.
Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals Act. These amendments were
passed as Title XVII, Subtitle F of the Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-198, the
omnibus 1985 farm bill). The law directs the Secretary to set new minimum standards
of care for handling, housing, feeding, water, sanitation, ventilation, and so forth. One
new provision that was highly contentious at the time singles out two species by requiring
standards for the exercise of dogs and the psychological well-being of primates. The law
provides that research facilities must have procedures that minimize pain and stress to the
animals, and describes practices considered to be painful. Each research facility must
establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to review research proposals
that involve animal experimentation and to provide oversight of laboratories. The
amendments also increase civil and criminal penalties for AWA violations, and establish
an animal welfare information center at USDA’s National Agricultural Library.
Protection of Pets. Section 2503 of the Food Agriculture, Conservation, and
Trade Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-624, the omnibus 1990 farm bill) extends pet protections.
It requires public and private animal shelters and research facilities which acquire dogs
and cats to hold them for at least five days to allow time for either adoption or recovery
by the original owner before they can be sold to a dealer. Dealers are prohibited from
selling dogs and cats they did not breed unless they provide certified records on, among
other things, the animals’ origin. Other new recordkeeping requirements also are
specified.
2002 Amendments. Title X, Subtitle D of the Farm Security and Rural
Investment Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-171, the omnibus 2002 farm bill) makes it a
misdemeanor to ship a bird in interstate commerce for fighting purposes, or to knowingly
place any bird in a fight where any of the birds were so shipped (even fights within a state
where the practice is permitted). The law also increases the maximum financial penalty
for violations of the anti-fighting provisions of the AWA. The 2002 law also explicitly
excludes from AWA coverage birds, rats, and mice bred for research purposes. The
Secretary of Agriculture had previously published regulations excluding these animals
from coverage, which the Animal Legal Defense Fund challenged in federal court. When
USDA agreed to settle the case by agreeing to essentially reverse its regulations, Congress

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(in P.L. 106-387, the FY2001 agriculture appropriation) blocked the action by prohibiting
funds for such a rule change. The 2002 law made the exclusion a permanent part of the
AWA.5
Selected Bills and Issues
Congress has been asked to consider a variety of bills in recent decades which seek
to improve the welfare of animals. Generally, those proposing to amend the AWA have
been referred to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. In the 109th Congress,
the following AWA-related bills have been introduced.
Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act. Companion bills (H.R. 817
by Representative Mark Green and S. 382 by Senator Ensign) would move the animal
fighting provisions of the AWA to Title 18 of the U.S. Code (Crimes and Criminal
Procedure), make violations of federal animal fighting law a felony punishable by up to
two years in prison, and prohibit interstate and foreign commerce in knives and gaffs
designed for use in cockfighting. S. 382 was discharged by the Senate Judiciary
Committee by unanimous consent on April 29, 2005; it passed the Senate on the same
day, also by unanimous consent. On the House side, H.R. 817 is pending before the
Agriculture Committee and the Committee on the Judiciary, where the Subcommittee on
Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security held a hearing on May 18, 2006.
Proponents of the bills assert that in 2001, the House and Senate had approved strong
animal fighting sanctions in their respective farm bills (H.R. 2646 and S. 1731) but that
conferees on the final 2002 farm bill removed the felony language. Stronger deterrents
are needed because animal fighting is a brutal, inhumane practice that is closely associated
with criminal activity, endangers children where aggressive dogs are being reared, and
may contribute to the spread of avian influenza in the case of live birds, they argue.
Opponents counter that the proposed measure would violate provisions in the U.S.
Constitution which protect states’ rights, including the Commerce Clause, and which
recognize private citizens’ right to travel for economic reasons. Completely banning
and/or stiffening penalties for all animal fighting activities would drive them further
underground, undermining efforts to protect animals and the public from any disease
problems created by such activities, other opponents argue.
Pet Animal Welfare Statute (“PAWS”). These companion bills (H.R. 2669 by
Representative Gerlach and S. 1139 by Senator Santorum) would require commercial dog
and cat breeders to obtain AWA licenses if they sell more than six litters or more than 25
dogs or cats directly to the public each year. The bills, which are pending in the
respective Agriculture Committees, also would require more recordkeeping to ascertain
the sources of the animals and would strengthen USDA’s ability to correct AWA
violations.
Supporters of the bills contend that the Internet and other relatively recent marketing
techniques have enabled importers and large commercial breeders, whom they call “puppy
mills,” to sell their animals directly to the public while evading the AWA licensing and
humane handling requirements, even though they are selling large numbers of animals.
5 Brief Summaries of Federal Animal Protection Statutes, by Henry Cohen.

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(Wholesale breeders are already covered by the AWA.) Opponents counter that the
measures would strain USDA resources and newly subject thousands of relatively small
in-home and hobby breeders, as well as rescue organizations, to burdensome licensing and
regulatory requirements that were designed for large commercial businesses; some cat
breeders in particular have argued that the six-litter limit is too low for their animals and
threatens efforts to preserve some breeds.
Pet Safety and Protection Act. Legislation (H.R. 5229 by Representative
English and S. 451 by Senator Akaka) would restrict where research facilities could
obtain their dogs and cats. Such animals could be obtained only from licensed breeders,
publicly operated shelters, other licensed research facilities, or donees that had bred and
raised the animal or that had owned it for at least the previous year. Proponents assert that
the bills are aimed at shutting down some 15 “Class B” dealers who collect dogs and cats
from random sources including “free to a good home” classified advertisements, auctions,
and flea markets, and who arguably are more concerned about profit than animal welfare.
Those who oppose H.R. 5229 and S. 451 contend that passage would leave no viable
sources of random source dogs and cats, which are needed by medical and veterinary
researchers because of their genetic and age diversity. Opponents add that the majority
of Class B dealers are in compliance with the AWA. The bills are pending before the
House and Senate Agriculture Committees.
PETS Act. Other legislation has addressed animal welfare concerns, often outside
the confines of the AWA. For example, the House on May 22, 2006, passed the so-called
Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards (PETS) Act (H.R. 3858 by Representative
Lantos). The bill amends the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency
Assistance Act (at 42 U.S.C. 5196b) to require the Federal Emergency Management
Agency to ensure that state and local agencies address the needs of household pet owners
and service animals in their disaster response plans. A similar but somewhat broader bill
(S. 2548 by Senator Stevens) is pending in the Senate. H.R. 5441 (passed in Senate) and
S. 3721 (reported in Senate) contain comparable provisions. (See also CRS Report
RL33579, The Public Health and Medical Response to Disasters: Federal Authority and
Funding, by Sarah A. Lister.)
Agriculture-Related Measures. Agricultural-related animal protection measures
include S. 1779 by Senator Akaka and H.R. 3931 by Representative Ackerman, which
would amend the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (7 U.S.C. 1901 et seq.) to require
that all nonambulatory livestock (called “downers” by the trade) are humanely euthanized;
and H.R. 503 by Representative Sweeney and S. 1915 by Senator Ensign, which would
amend the Horse Protection Act (15 U.S.C. §1821 et seq.) to prohibit the movement and
slaughter of horses for food. In some recent years, USDA appropriations measures have
included language and/or funding to address aspects of animal welfare. For more details
on these and related measures, see CRS Report RS21978, Humane Treatment of Farm
Animals: Overview and Issues, and CRS Report RS21842, Horse Slaughter Prevention
Bills and Issues.

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