A research company breeding and supplying laboratory animals pleaded guilty Monday to animal welfare violations and pollution-related charges and incurred a hefty fine of $35 million, two years after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) rescued over 4,000 beagles from its Central Virginia facility, according to statements.
Envigo RMS LLC pleaded guilty to “conspiring to knowingly violate the Animal Welfare Act”, according to a statement from the DOJ. Envigo Global Services Inc. “pleaded guilty to a felony of conspiring to knowingly violate the Clean Water Act,” the statement further disclosed. Both companies are subsidiaries of Inotiv, the DOJ said.
Prosecutors accused Envigo RMS of failing to provide adequate veterinary care, adequate staffing and safe living conditions for dogs housed at its facility in Cumberland County. They further alleged that Envigo Global Services caused “massive unlawful discharges of insufficiently treated wastewater into a local waterway” having failed to properly operate and maintain the wastewater treatment plant at the facility. The allegedly improperly run wastewater treatment plant also sickened the dogs at the facility, the DOJ’s statement reported.
Dogs in the facility were housed in unsanitary conditions, not properly fed or else fed contaminated food, and some were euthanized without proper sedation—among other alleged animal abuses—despite having earned $16 million from selling nearly 15,000 dogs between 2019 and 2022, Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim told reporters. Some 445 beagles were “in acute distress” during a May 2022 search of the facility, he added.
“Why did this happen? Envigo placed profit before compliance with the law,” Kim said. (RELATED: Man Pleads Guilty To Creating Monkey Torture Videos, DOJ Says)
Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance called the alleged violations “heartbreaking” and “egregious”, according to the DOJ’s statement.
The DOJ and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) rescued over 4,000 beagles left at the facility and planned to put them up for adoption, according to a separate statement. The dogs were removed between May and Sept. 2022, Kim said.
Inotiv will pay fines collectively totaling over $35 million—the largest ever fine in an Animal Welfare Act case, the DOJ noted. Inotiv would also be subject to increased animal care standards and a compliance monitor. Inotiv’s two subsidiaries would be placed on probation for three to five years, according to the DOJ.
“Envigo deserves every dollar of its record fine,” Uhlmann said in part.
The DOJ also permanently prohibited Envigo from carrying out any activity that required an Animal Welfare Act (AWA) license at the Cumberland facility.
Inotiv acknowledged the agreement with the DOJ in a statement.
“We believe we made considerable strides in improving conditions at the Cumberland facility, and we were committed to addressing the issues identified by the USDA as quickly as possible after the acquisition, but the government intervention led to the closure of the Cumberland facility, halting the progress we had made,” Inotiv said in the statement.
“Our operations are underpinned by a set of defined best-in-class animal welfare principles,” Inotive added in part.
A sentence would be passed Oct. 7, the DOJ said.