We Must Shut Down Department of Agriculture, APHIS and National Wildlife Service

[Richard W. Firth]

Clearly in the following response appearing immediately below The U. S. Department of Agriculture and its associated agency APHIS do not want to move aggressively enough to enforce sanctions and other actions against zoos, safaris and similar institutions confining animals under illegal conditions such as the elephant Asha residing in the Natural Bridge Zoo and siding with the zoos allowing the importation of those 17 elephants against the advice and protests of experts and professionals in the matter.

It is now time to join the conservatives calling for abolishment of certain departments such as IRS, Department of Education, National Institutes for Health, to which we now add The Department of Agriculture with its APHIS and the National Fish and Wildlife Service, which is wasting our tax dollars killing more animals then it saves as along with the agencies and Departments the conservatives want eliminated for not doing the job, thus wasting our tax dollars.

Those of us in our animal welfare movement must stop providing funding for these groups thus shutting them down for good, replacing them with agencies and departments staffed with both preservationists (those who do not believe in using lethal means) and conservationists (those who will use both lethal and non-lethal means). Unfortunately the laws governing our wildlife state the wildlife belong to all the people--non-hunters, non-trappers, non-fishermen as well as hunters, non-trappers and fishermen. But at least it is a start in the right direction which will allow those of us who feel that hunting, trapping and fishing are not in the best interest of our wildlife to allow our voices to be heard and our votes counted.

If any of you out there can get a petition started on change.org calling for the non-funding of the above two Federal entities let's get it started. For some reason I am not at all successful in doing this with Change.org petition site.

If we want our elephants, tigers, lions and other exotic wildlife fully protected we cannot count on these entities doing the job as their actions are heavily influenced by organizations who really do not care about the wildlife over which we are so vitally concerned. So let's start getting rid of them and get rid of them now.

Thank you for your recent email to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) regarding the welfare of animals at Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. We share your concern for the humane treatment of animals. Under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) people who breed certain animals for commercial sale, use them in research, exhibit them to the public, or transport them commercially are required to be licensed or registered with us and meet established standards of humane animal care and treatment. Accordingly, they must provide their animals with— among other things—veterinary care, a balanced diet, clean and structurally sound housing, and protection from extremes of weather and temperature. USDA officials perform unannounced inspections to ensure that people who are responsible for animals that are protected under the AWA meet our requirements. If these people do not comply with the law, we document the problems and— if necessary—take enforcement action. In cases of serious or repeat noncompliance with the AWA, we will seek sanctions such as monetary penalties, license suspensions, and license revocations. Our authority to confiscate animals is limited to situations in which an animal is suffering as a result of failure to comply with the AWA and action is not taken to alleviate the condition. Such action is remedial in nature, and is not a sanction we can seek in connection with AWA noncompliance. In the case of Wildlife Safari, our most recent inspection occurred on January 6, 2016, and we found no noncompliant items. We assure you that we will continue to monitor this and all other AWA-regulated facilities to ensure compliance with the law’s requirements. If you would like to locate inspection reports for this or other AWA-licensed facilities you can do so online using our searchable inspection report database at http://acissearch.aphis.usda.gov/LPASearch/faces/Warning.jspx. Please read the warning and then click "I agree" in the dialog box. The inspection report search engine page will then appear. You can enter the name of the facility in the "Search" box and then click on "Search." When the results display, you should click on the "Inspection Information" tab in the center of your screen. From there you can view the history of inspection reports and can click on "Details" to see more information about each inspection. If you still have questions, you may contact the appropriate regional office of our Animal Care program. To determine which regional office to contact, please see the map at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_welfare/downloads/acorg.html. The Western Region’s telephone number is [phone]; the e-mail address is [e-mail]. The Eastern Region’s telephone number is [phone]; the e-mail address is [e-mail]. To learn more about the AWA and our efforts to protect covered animals from mistreatment, we encourage you to visit our Web site at www.aphis.usda.gov and select "Animal Welfare" on the left side of the page.