Are animal experiments being conducted in your city/state or at your university or alma mater? Use the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s public search tool to find out!
The Animal Welfare Act requires facilities in the U.S. that conduct experiments* on certain animals** to register with the USDA, file an annual report with the agency each year and submit to unannounced inspections from the agency at least once annually. These annual reports and inspection reports are then uploaded to the USDA website where they can be accessed by the public.
Find annual reports from animal laboratories
Annual reports list the number of dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, primates, sheep and pigs used in experiments, and held in the laboratory but not currently being used in experiments, that year. Sometimes other species are included as well. The report notes the number of animals used in each category of experiment. Experiments are categorized according to the level of pain and distress caused and whether the animals were given any medications to relieve their pain and distress.
TO VIEW LABORATORY ANNUAL REPORTS
- Access the USDA's Animal Care Public Search Tool. Click on Annual Reports on the green bar at the top of the page.
- You can search by Year, City, State, Zip Code, Customer/Organization Name, Customer Number and/or Certificate Number. Enter one or more search terms, then click the Search button.
- Click the View Annual Reports tab.
- Click View Report on the left-hand side of each listing.
Find inspection reports from animal laboratories
Inspection reports show any Animal Welfare Act** violations that were identified during the inspection. Violations are listed as “non-compliant items” and are described in the report. The report also summarizes the specific species and number of animals inspected.
TO VIEW LABORATORY INSPECTION REPORTS
- Access the USDA's Animal Care Public Search Tool. Click on Inspection Reports on the green bar at the top of the page.
- Select Research Facility from the drop-down box in the License/Registration Type section.
- You can search by City, State, Zip Code, Customer/Organization Name, Customer Number and/or Certificate Number. Enter one or more search terms, then click the Search button.
- Click the View Inspection Reports tab.
- Click View Inspection Report on the left-hand side of each listing.
*Many companies pay laboratories to conduct animal testing on their behalf. The USDA does not track which companies have contracted with animal laboratories. If a company is not listed in the USDA database, it does not necessarily mean that they are not involved in funding or ordering animal experiments.
**The Animal Welfare Act (AWA) is a federal law that sets minimal standards for the treatment of certain warm-blooded animals used in experiments. Ninety-five per cent of animals used in experiments in the U.S. are excluded from AWA protections and are not counted in USDA statistics. These animals include “purpose-bred” birds, mice and rats (birds, mice and rats bred specifically to be used in experiments) and animals such as octopuses, frogs, fish, turtles and crabs. Facilities that conduct experiments exclusively on animals not protected by the AWA are not required to submit annual reports to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), nor are they inspected by the USDA or any other government agency. The failure to protect excluded species under the law means that there is no oversight or scrutiny of how these animals are treated or what kinds of experiments they are used in while they are in the laboratory. And, because these animals are not counted, no one knows how many of them are suffering in laboratories. It also means that facilities using unprotected species in experiments are not required to search for alternatives that could be used instead of conducting harmful experiments on these animals.
