The Trump administration is slashing regulations and abandoning enforcement throughout the government, and at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, that can mean suffering for animals. The Washington Post reports that in one 2017 case, hundreds of raccoons were trapped in cages in temperatures over 100 degrees, causing “severe heat distress” for dozens. Inspectors confiscated 10 of the animals, only to be ordered to return them after industry groups went to a Trump adviser and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue stepped in.
Let’s pause to consider that a Cabinet member personally intervened in the fate of 10 raccoons—but only so their corporate owners could return them to suffering.
The USDA has gone from issuing 4,944 animal welfare citations in 2016 to just 1,716 in 2018. The number of enforcement cases dropped by 92% in the same time frame. The Trump administration claims that this is all a sign that its emphasis on education rather than enforcement is working, but according to a veterinarian who oversaw inspectors through much of the country from 2014 to 2018, “The changes that have been made over the past two years have systematically dismantled and weakened the inspection process,” with the result being “untold numbers of animals that have experienced unnecessary suffering.”
USDA staffers, including veterinarians, are leaving, with an elephant specialist who left in 2017 saying “It feels like your hands are tied behind your back. You can’t do many things you’re supposed to when it comes to protecting animals. You’re seeing inspectors so frustrated they’re walking out the door.”
Then again, when you look at how the Trump administration is treating human families at the border, this can’t come as much of a surprise.