The Animal Welfare Act was established because a rising topic in the media was the issue of pets stolen for use in research facilities ("Animal Welfare Act"). Laws were made to prevent …show more content…
Minimum cage size requirements are an important part of act, these sizes are based off the size and shape of each animal and how many animals are in a cage. For example a dog’s cage size is determine by the length dog, animals’ cage size while in transportation is determined by the usual stances and positions of the animal (Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Act). Inspections of the facilities are required, the inspections can be performed without any previous notice, and must be performed if any report against a facility is filed (Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Act). Each animal is required to have thorough records kept on it, which should be turned in annually, including where the animal was obtained and what was done with it. Pain of animals is supposed to minimalized unless it effects research, for example if an experiment is performed on animal to measure pain or to study reactions to pain, analgesics do not have to be administered. If pain cannot be minimalized the animal is to be euthanized. There must be an attending veterinarian to care for animals and make decisions such as exercise requirements, type of environment animals are kept in, and more. All researchers and caretakers must have correct qualifications (Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Act). Each animal is required to be on a specific food and water regiment, except before certain surgical procedures …show more content…
Another example of this is that it is considered by the Animal Welfare Act, as exercise for dogs to put them in a cage that is double the size of the minimum required cage size (Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Act). This is not a logical law because even if the cage size is larger for a period of time, it does not necessarily encourage the dog to exercise and the cage size is still small in comparison to the dog. Animals in these conditions are still getting sick, dying prematurely, and showing symptoms of zoochosis. Zoochosis is a mental health disease found in animals, which is induced by captivity. Animals effected have basically been driven mentally unstable by boredom and stress. Symptoms of zoochosis are easily identifiable and are occasionally seen by the public in zoo, circus, and aquarium animals. The symptoms include repetitive vomiting, unnatural movements and twisting of the head and neck, playing with excrement, biting, sucking, or licking the bars, gates, or walls of their enclosures, swaying or rocking back and forth, over grooming, and self-harm. There are laws put into place by the Animal Welfare Act to enhance the mental welfare of the animals (Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Act). This is a case where it can blatantly be seen that the laws in place are not enough to do the job intended. The act has yet to add ectotherms to be covered by the animal welfare laws (Overview of U.S. Animal Welfare Act). Ectotherms are more commonly known as cold