60 years of the Animal Welfare Act and dogs are still suffering
This story raises questions about governance, accountability, and American values.
Sixty years. That’s how long the Animal Welfare Act has been on the books, and you’d think we’d have figured out how to keep a puppy from being starved in a wire cage by now. The ASPCA is marking the anniversary by pointing a finger at the USDA, and frankly, they’re right to do it.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
ASPCA senior vice president Nancy Perry argues that Congress must pass Goldie's Act to address the USDA's chronic failure to enforce the Animal Welfare Act and protect dogs from systemic abuse.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Sixty years. That’s how long the Animal Welfare Act has been on the books, and you’d think we’d have figured out how to keep a puppy from being starved in a wire cage by now. The ASPCA is marking the anniversary by pointing a finger at the USDA, and frankly, they’re right to do it. We can pass all the feel-good legislation we want in Washington, but if the agency tasked with enforcement treats the rules like a suggestion box instead of a legal mandate, the ink on the page isn’t worth much.
The push for Goldie’s Act cuts through the nonsense by holding the USDA to a hard timeline. It demands they actually respond to complaints and shut down the bad actors who rack up violations like frequent flyer miles. That is the crux of the problem: the department has the authority now, but the bureaucratic inertia means a dog can suffer for years while the paperwork sits in a file somewhere. If you run a commercial breeding operation and you treat your animals with cruelty, you shouldn’t be allowed to hide behind a backlog of federal red tape.
We hear the arguments about government overreach, and we don't dismiss them lightly. But there is a line between protecting property rights and defending outright neglect. A conservative principle worth defending is that a person who is entrusted with a living creature has a solemn obligation to care for it—and when they fail, the state must step in swiftly. Goldie’s Act is a commonsense fix because it doesn't create a new bureaucracy; it just forces the one we already fund to do its damn job.
If the USDA can’t be trusted to enforce the law after six decades, maybe a little congressional pressure is exactly what they need. Our tax dollars are paying for these inspections, and we deserve better. We should all want a system that punishes the bad apples, protects the innocent animals, and restores faith that our federal agencies can operate with a shred of competence. Getting this bill across the finish line is a small test of whether Washington can still handle the basics.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.