Animal-friendly laws and regulations are having a moment in the United States. Late in December, President Joe Biden signed three long-awaited bills into law: a ban on the tiger cub petting and breeding industry, a prohibition on the buying and selling of shark fins, and the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, which lifts requirements to use animal testing in pharmaceutical development, among other things.
“We’re seeing movement on many bills,” says Kathleen Schatzmann, strategic legislative affairs manager at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “This shows the bipartisan nature of animal protection.” Last week, two federal agencies also proposed regulations that would enhance protections for wild animals in captivity and some animals in the wild.
According to National Geographic, one such proposal published in the Federal Register on January 9 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) could impose new limits on how people can interact with captive wild and exotic animals, effectively expanding the recent legislation that applies to tigers and other big cats.
The USDA is asking members of the public to suggest what kinds of restrictions would be appropriate for different species—from bears and killer whales to “pocket pets” such as sugar gliders—and whether the government should require timely incident reports when, for example, a captive animal escapes or injures someone.
As part of its rulemaking, the agency says it wants to clarify what counts as “adequate experience and knowledge” for keeping wild and exotic animals and what constitutes sufficient safety barriers between people and exhibited animals, including species that could injure or kill people.
The USDA has issued licenses to nearly 2,000 exhibitors and says that exhibitors increasingly have been offering opportunities for visitors to interact with their animals. In 2021, 44.4 percent of facilities did so, according to the agency. Meanwhile, between 2019 and 2021, the USDA reported 119 “handling” problems; 12.6 percent of them caused injury or death to a person or animal.
To improve animal care, the USDA also proposes that all wild and exotic animal species kept for exhibition should have their environmental enrichment requirements met—a shift that could require facilities to make changes enabling more natural foraging, feeding, and socializing for animals. In the past, species-specific enrichment has been required only for marine mammals and non-human primates.
The draft is available for public comment through March 10.
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