Enforcement activity summary data will now be made available in a new format by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The new structure is designed to provide stakeholders with a larger view of the agency’s efforts to encourage compliance within regulations to protect American agriculture — including horse protection.

APHIS is enacting changes to include information about enforcement efforts in the areas of horse protection and animal welfare, animal and plant health, agricultural quarantine inspection and biotechnology. The purpose is to provide better context on all enforcement activities. 

APHIS’ Investigative and Enforcement Services (IES) is tasked with inspecting alleged violations of the statues and regulations managed by agency programs. The data available will include an overall view of enforcement activities and allow customers to see the annual data from IES in one place. 

The new format will feature data charts and more a thorough explanation of IES’ functions. Specifically, it will cover information on the investigative, enforcement and regular support services for the four APHIS programs IES serves, as well as the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection’s agricultural quarantine inspections.

A fiscal report for the 2018 Impact Report will be issued by APHIS for its Animal Care program as well. This report, combined with the enforcement summaries, will aid in providing a complete picture of APHIS’ work to ensure the welfare of animals through inspections, support, customer service, training, emergency support and enforcement.

Previous years’ enforcement summaries are being archived by APHIS to avoid confusion because they can’t be readily compared to the new format. Annual updates will be made to the enforcement data and activities in the new format going forward.

You can access the new content here.