Judge: "You are unfit to be a licensee,” Clifton said during the teleconference hearing. “I do not know why you have been unable to understand the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. I believe it is more from disinterest than anything else.”
Chinchilla's left eyelid crusted and swollen with discharge...
A chinchilla breeder with hundreds of violations under the Animal
Welfare Act had his license permanently revoked and was issued an
$18,000 penalty leveraged by a United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) judge who declared him “unfit.”
The Oct. 8 administrative hearing involving Dan Moulton, owner of
Minnesota-based Moulton Chinchilla Ranch (MCR), followed an
undercover investigationby People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA), dogged documentation of violations spanning almost a
decade via Freedom of Information requests filed by the Animal
Welfare Institute (AWI), and a 2018 complaint filed by the USDA —
the most severe enforcement step the federal agency can take, which
can lead to a hearing and a revoked license.
During the 18-day hearing, USDA Administrative Law Judge Jill
Clifton called the violations “absolutely astounding.”
“You are unfit to be a licensee,” Clifton said during the
teleconference hearing. “I do not know why you have been unable to
understand the requirements of the Animal Welfare Act. I believe it
is more from disinterest than anything else.”
While some researchers have said they likely will shift to using guinea pigs in their research, other scientists have said that it’s time to rely on more accurate and more humane models — including models of the human ear using human cells and tissues.
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