The animal protection community suffered a major setback on February 15, 2002 when the U.S. Senate amended the Farm Bill (S. 1731) to deny protection under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) to birds, mice, and rats used in research.

There is no such amendment in the House version of the Farm Bill. Consequently, before the bill can be signed into law, it must first be approved by a Congressional conference committee which will reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions. Animal protectionists will seek to have the exclusion amendment, sponsored by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), removed by the conference committee. Helms also had a second, less-sweeping amendment added to the Senate Farm Bill; it calls for a study to assess the value of including birds, mice, and rats in the AWA regulations.

The AWA is the primary federal law governing the treatment of animals used in research. Passage of the Helms amendments is the latest development in a struggle for legal coverage of these species, a struggle that dates back to 1970—the year when Congress extended the provisions of the AWA to include all warm-blooded vertebrates (i.e. mammals and birds). Following this Congressional amendment, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued new regulations that broadened the definition of "animal" but explicitly excluded birds and laboratory-bred mice and rats from coverage. Since that time, The Humane Society of the United States and other animal protection organizations have worked to ensure that these species are included under the AWA regulations.

Sources: The HSUS, The Herald Sun