Executive Summary

The United States (US) has a few key pieces of animal welfare legislation applicable at the federal level. The Animal Welfare Act (1966) sets general standards for the humane care and treatment that must be provided for certain animals who are bred for commercial sale, exhibited to the public, used in biomedical research, or transported commercially. The Horse Protection Act (1970) prohibits sored horses from participating in shows, exhibitions, sales or auctions and the Humane Slaughter Act (1978) mandates humane slaughter for certain species. Most US animal welfare laws are enacted at the state level. However, the scope of application of statutes vary across states.

Since the API was first published in 2014, several new pieces of legislation have been enacted and have been positive for animal welfare. The Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act (PACT), unanimously passed by Congress in November 2019, makes it a federal crime to engage in animal crushing. At the state level, California passed Proposition 12 in November 2018, considered one of the most progressive pieces of animal welfare legislation in the world. In fact, it sets specific minimum space requirements for animals raised for food, thus effectively banning cages for laying hens, sow stalls, and crates for calves. Furthermore, California passed the Circus Cruelty Prevention Act in May 2019, which outlaws the use of all wild animals in circuses. In October 2019, California became the first state to prohibit the sale of fur products, with a ban entering into force on 1 January 2023. California and Maryland also passed legislation prohibiting pet stores from sourcing animals from commercial breeders. Massachusetts passed two Protect Animal Welfare and Safety (PAWS) Acts: the first one in 2014 established an animal welfare task force, while PAWS II aims to improve cross-reporting of animal cruelty to law enforcement agencies, prevents the automatic euthanasia of animals confiscated from the animal fighting industry; and modernizes the state’s prohibitions against animal sexual abuse. In November 2019, Michigan passed Senate Bill 0174, which mandates cage-free conditions for egg-laying hens and prohibits the sale of non-cage-free eggs by December 2024.

However, there remains room for improvement in many areas related to animal welfare. Notably, there is a clear lack of federal protection for animals, since the Animal Welfare Act (1966) does not apply to birds, rats and mice used for research, horses used for research and farm animals. There is no federal legislation protecting farm animals during the rearing phase. Plus, the Humane Slaughter Act does not apply to poultry or fish. Furthermore, the US Department of Agriculture has removed public access to thousands of reports documenting the numbers of animals kept by research laboratories, companies, zoos, circuses and animal transporters, and whether those animals are being treated humanely in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act (1966). Since 3 February 2017, anyone wishing to access such information needs to file a Freedom of Information Act request, which can take months to be processed. Furthermore, cruel practices such as fur farming and various uses of animals for entertainment purposes are allowed in the US.

The US Department of Agriculture is responsible to promulgate laws and regulations pertaining to animal welfare on a limited number of issues. Its subsidiary the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, implemented by the APHIS Animal Care and Veterinary Units. With regards to animals used in scientific research, it is required that all institutions intending to use animals for research establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) to review the experiment planned. The Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Validation of Alternative Methods (ICCVAM), created in 2000, promotes the Three Rs principles (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) and collaborates internationally on the development of alternatives to animal research.

Given the extensive body of scientific evidence, the US Government is urged to define in legislation, at a minimum, all vertebrates, cephalopods and decapod crustaceans as sentient. Furthermore, the US Government is strongly encouraged to expand the use of the Animal Welfare Act (1966), so that it applies to all sentient animals. The US Government is strongly encouraged to amend the PACT Act (2019), with removing the exemption for the animals killed for food or used in scientific research. Building upon the example of California’s Proposition 12, the US Government is urged to ban the worst forms of confinement for farm animals. In particular, the use of farrowing crates, sow stalls, and cages should be banned. The US Government is also urged to ban the production and sale of fur products, since fur farming is inherently cruel and causes pain, distress and suffering to animals. The US Government is also encouraged to outlaw cruel forms of entertainment that cause animal suffering, such as the use of animals for circuses, rodeos, fights, races, rides on wild animals, and the use of marine mammals in shows. The US Government is also urged to support the re-introduction and enactment of the Humane Cosmetics Act that would phase out cosmetic animal testing and the sale of cosmetics tested on animals. The US Government is strongly encouraged to allocate sufficient annual funding to ensure the effective implementation and enforcement of animal welfare standards. Further legal and policy recommendations are associated with each Animal Protection Index (API) indicator and contained in the relevant sections of this report.