Animal Protection

Animal protection activists in the United States have long sought legislation to modify or curtail some practices considered by U.S. agriculture to be acceptable or even necessary to animal health. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is responsible for enforcing the Animal Welfare Act, which requires minimum standards of care for certain warm-blooded animals bred for commercial sale, used in research, transported commercially, or exhibited to the public. The Human Methods of Slaughter Act governs the humane slaughter and handling of livestock at packing plants. This book examines the violations perpetrated under the Human Methods of Slaughter Act, and the Animal Welfare Act and advises where actions are needed to strengthen enforcement on the humane treatment of animal handling laws.