Ch. 13— Federal Regulation of Animal Use • 287 
Table 13-1 summarizes funding and staff sup- 
port dedicated to animal welfare activities, com- 
pared with the total APHIS budget and equivalent 
staff -years, for Federal fiscal years 1980-85. As a 
percentage of the total budget for APHIS activi- 
ties, animal welfare has consistently constituted 
less than 2 percent. 
Animal welfare appropriations have remained 
virtually constant since fiscal year 1982, despite 
gradual reductions in APHIS’s overall budget. 
(Some of the decline in regular appropriations can 
be traced to increases in fees collected for a vari- 
ety of activities, though program -specific reduc- 
tions have occurred (4).) The total number of staff - 
years spent on APHIS activities (calculated from 
work -years available from authorized positions for 
which general appropriations are made) declined 
steadily from fiscal year 1980 through fiscal year 
1985. That decline is reflected proportionately in 
animal welfare activities, but the percentage of 
staff -years devoted to those activities has remained 
constant and, as a percentage of the total staff time, 
is slightly higher than that of appropriated funds. 
As of March 1985, a total of 1,286 research facil- 
ities had registered with APHIS as using covered 
animals, as having acquired them in commerce, 
or as receiving related Federal funding support. 
Sixty -four percent of the principal registered re- 
search facilities (RRFs)are located in just 10 popu- 
lous States (California, New York, Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, 
Michigan, and Florida; see table 13-2); most facil- 
ities are close to urban centers. These numbers 
are for the principal registrants only, not the total 
number of research sites. A university campus sys- 
tem, for example, is only required to register once 
under the act, though it may have a number of 
sites where research or tests are performed. The 
location of licensees (dealers and exhibitors), other 
registrants (carriers and intermediate handlers), 
and violators of the act’s animal-fighting prohibi- 
tion may not, of course, exhibit a similar distribu- 
tion. Given APHIS’s traditional and overarching 
duties to protect food- and fiber-producing plants 
and animals as well as the Animal Welfare Act’s 
exemption from coverage of most agricultural re- 
search, it seems that not even the major share of 
animal welfare enforcement resources could be 
targeted toward monitoring the care and treat- 
ment of experimental animals. 
As the most widely used experimental subjects— 
mice and rats— have been excluded by USDA reg- 
ulation from the act’s coverage (9 CFR l.l(n),(o)), 
current regulations probably do not affect a sub- 
stantial percentage of animals used for experi- 
mental purposes. This can be tested in a crude way 
by comparing the 1984 Directory of Toxicology 
Laboratories, compiled by Chemical Times and 
Trends ( CT&T ), with APHIS’s 1984 List of Regis- 
tered Research Facilities. Sixty -eight of 112 test- 
ing facilities, or 61 percent, listed in the CT&T 
directory also appear by name in the APHIS regis- 
tration list; 39 percent are not registered. This im- 
plies no wrongdoing on the part of unregistered 
toxicity testing labs, since they may not fall under 
any of the definitional requirements for compli- 
ance with the act. The number of unregistered 
facilities is conservative, however; for purposes 
of comparison, it was assumed that all university - 
affiliated testing sites are covered by the parent 
institution’s principal registration and that any 
nonuniversity lab whose name approximates that 
of another registrant is also covered. If rats and 
Table 13-1.— Requests for Appropriations, Actual Appropriations, and Staff-Years, 
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Fiscal Years 1980-85 
1980 
1981 
1982 
1983 
1984 
1985 
Total appropriation, APHIS 3 (in thousands) 
. . $249,098 
$282,385 
$281,967 
$275,115 
$263,238 
$267,558 
Executive request, Animal Welfare (in thousands) 
. . $ 3,594 
$ 4,355 
$ 4,402 
$ 
1,509 
$ 
1,568 
$ 3,655 
Total appropriation, Animal Welfare 3 (in thousands). . . . 
.. $ 4,128 
$ 4,291 
$ 4,882 
$ 
4,886 
$ 
4,865 
$ 4,865 
Proportion (percent) of total appropriation 
1.7 
1.5 
1.7 
1.8 
1.9 
1.8 
Total staff-years, APHIS b 
5,286 
5,099 
5,069 
4,637 
4,416 
4,440 
Staff-years, Animal Welfare Act enforcement 
150 
137 
137 
120 
119 
120 
Proportion (percent) of total 
2.8 
2.7 
2.7 
2.6 
2.7 
2.7 
3 AII appropriations are actual (excluding pay supplementals). 
“Staff-years are calculated from available work-years for authorized positions (appropriated funds only). All figures are actual, except for fiscal year 1985, which is projected. 
SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment. 
