Washington - The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is extending the comment period on a proposal to establish animal welfare regulations for birds, to allow the public an additional 30 days to prepare and submit comments. On Feb. 18, 2022, APHIS announced the proposal to amend the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) regulations to establish new regulations and standards governing the humane handling, care, treatment, and transportation of birds. The proposed regulations would apply to captive birds not bred for use in research. In addition to the proposed rule, APHIS has completed an Environmental Assessment and a Regulatory Impact Analysis for these regulations and shared both documents for review and comment.APHIS is asking the public to provide comments on how this proposed rule would impact the regulated community, as well as ways that APHIS might assist regulated entities with implementation of these standards, whether through documents, guides, training, or other means. APHIS also invites comments on the proposed operating standards for facilities, the proposed animal health and husbandry standards, and the proposed transportation standards.All comments must be received by May 25, 2022. The docket is available to review and comment at https://www.regulations.gov/document/APHIS-2020-0068-8062. Comments may also be submitted in writing to Docket No. APHIS-2020-0068, Regulatory Analysis and Development, PPD, APHIS, Station 3A-03.8, 4700 River Road Unit 118, Riverdale, MD 20737-1238.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
