Animal Welfare Act Timeline.

1966: Congress passes the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act to regulate the care and handling of dogs, cats, non-human primates, guinea pigs, hamsters, and rabbits at licensed research institutions and animal dealer facilities.
1970: The act was, with certain exceptions, expanded to cover all warm-blooded animals in research as well as to cover animals in circuses, zoos, roadside shows, and commercial breeding operations. It was rechristened the Animal Welfare Act.
1976: Congress approved amendments to the act to cover animals in transportation as well as those forced to fight.
1985: Congress passed amendments requiring the use of pain killers and presurgical and postsurgical care; animal care training for personnel who work with animals; and euthanasia of an animal upon completion of an experiment. The amendments, among other things, also required exercise for dogs and a physical environment to promote the psychological well being of nonhuman primates.
1990: Congress passed amendments that imposed longer holding period requirements upon animal dealers.
2002: U.S. lawmakers, as part of the Farm Bill, passed an amendment that closed loopholes in the federal ban on the interstate shipment and foreign export of fighting animals. Congress also passed an amendment that codified into law the USDA’s long-standing exclusion of birds, mice, and rats from coverage as research animals.

Universal Declaration On Animal Welfare.

This is the draft of this declaration.
Recommendations for Ministerial Conference consideration:
The following recommendations for the proposed Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare shall be considered in the preparatory process to the Ministerial Conference:
PREAMBLE: The Costa Rica Steering Committee, following on from the Manila Conference on Animal Welfare, confirms:
a. That animal welfare is an issue worth consideration by governments.
b. That the promotion of animal welfare requires collective action and all stakeholders and affected parties must be involved.
c. That work on animal welfare is a continuous process.
A PROPOSAL FOR A DECLARATION ON ANIMAL WELFARE ARISING FROM THE MANILA CONFERENCE ON ANIMAL WELFARE (MARCH 2003) AND THE COSTA RICA STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING (NOVEMBER 2005.)
1. RECOGNIZING that animals are living, sentient beings and therefore deserve due consideration and respect;
2. RECOGNIZING that animal welfare includes animal health [and that veterinarians have an essential role in maintaining both the health and welfare of animals];
3. RECOGNIZING that humans [inhabit] this planet with other species and other forms of life and that all forms of life co-exist within an interdependent ecosystem;
4. RECOGNIZING the importance of the ongoing work of the OIE (World Organization for Animal Health) in setting global standards for animal welfare.
AGREEING that the term [state] includes people and civil society;
ACKNOWLEDGING that many [states] already have a system of legal protection for animals, both domestic and wild. SEEKING to ensure the continued effectiveness of these systems and the development of better and more comprehensive animal welfare provisions. ACKNOWLEDGING that the humane use of animals can have major benefits for humans. AWARE that the “five freedoms (freedom from hunger, thirst and malnutrition; freedom from fear and distress; freedom from physical and thermal discomfort;
freedom from pain, injury and disease; and freedom to express normal patterns of behaviour)” and the “three Rs (reduction in numbers of animals, refinement of experimental methods and replacement of animals with non-animal techniques)” provide valuable guidance for the use of animals;
5. RECOGNIZING that the provisions contained in this declaration do not affect the rights of any [state].
PRINCIPLES OF THE DECLARATION:1. The welfare of animals shall be a common objective for all [states];
2. The standards of animal welfare attained by each [state] shall be promoted, recognized and observed by improved measures, nationally and internationally. While there are significant social, economic and cultural differences between societies, each should care for and treat animals in a humane and sustainable manner in accordance with the principles of the Declaration.
3. All appropriate steps shall be taken by [states] to prevent cruelty to animals and to reduce their suffering.
4. Appropriate standards on the welfare of animals be further developed and elaborated such as, but not limited to, those governing the use and management of farm animals, companion animals, animals in scientific research, draught animals, wildlife animals and animals in recreation.
Proposed Government initiatives to further promote animal welfare:
- Need for linkages with local organizations.
- Need for linkages with international organizations.
- Need for continued interactions through conferences, etc.
- Need for convergence/alliance of principles.
- Need for identification of common goals.
- Need for verbalizing commonalities in country approaches.
- Need for laws and regulations to underpin each advance (note carefully the importance of education)
- Need for international cooperation.
- Government support for animal welfare research and development.
WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals), March 2007.

The Difference Between Rights and Welfare.

***This is a snippet of part of a guest column I had in the Herald Dispatch***

Animal Rights Vs. Animal Welfare.

Animal WELFARE is about humane treatment of animals; in fact, animal welfare is essentially synonymous with the original humane movement begun in England in the l840's.

Animal RIGHTS is claiming animals have legal rights, as people do, and the most basic animal right is the right not to be owned or used for any purpose at all by human beings.

Animal WELFARE supporters aim for a balance between owning and using animals as humanely as possible and allowing owners and breeders their rights to own, use, and breed animals.

Animal RIGHTS supporters aim to end all ownership, use, and breeding of all animals. They envision a world in which no animals are left anywhere, because, allegedly, man has so mis-treated animals, man no longer deserves to have animals. If it is not possible to end the existence of all animals by sterilization, then at least, all animals should be set free to make their way in the wilderness. Anything less than that is slavery.

Animal RIGHTS people do NOT believe in animal welfare. On the contrary, they are not interested in so-called humane treatment of animals, because they believe there should be no interaction at all between animals and human beings.