Animal care standards

Standards of care for captive animals (other than personal pets) have grown increasingly stringent over the past decade or two, leading to the imposition of rules which arguably act against the welfare of such animals and hinder humanitarian efforts to rescue stray animals.

Details

Specific results of increased stringency have included [from memory; please verify]:

• Animals must now be kept in metal cages, which (although arguably more sanitary) are a significantly less pleasant environment for the animal, can be harmful to health in other ways (e.g. metal can be very cold, and is more likely to have sharp edges) and is often prohibitively expensive for low-budget operations such as all-volunteer pet shelters.
• Animals used for scientific experiments must be destroyed when the experiment ends, rather than being released into the wild or given/sold to individuals as pets.

Discussion

• 2006-05-11 Staddon-Sutton Correspondence

Notes

• 2004-04-10 U.S. Won't Let Company Test All Its Cattle For Mad Cow isn't strictly related to this issue, but it is another example of senseless rules being handed down arbitrarily by a "gatekeeper" agency – in this case, Japan won't import US beef unless each cow is tested, but the FDA refuses to allow the testing, saying it is "not scientifically warranted". (This was over 2 years ago; anyone know how it was resolved?)