WASHINGTON (WRIC) — A top animal care official with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) who oversaw a division that handled inspections of facilities — including that of Envigo in Cumberland County — is stepping down at the end of April, a department spokesperson confirmed to 8News.
Dr. Betty Goldentyre was appointed Deputy Administrator for the USDA’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) program in December 2019, according to the USDA’s website, leading employees in “protecting and ensuring the welfare of millions of animals nationwide.” It was this service that carried out inspections of Envigo’s Central Virginia facility, where beagles were bred and warehoused before being sold for research.
Over the course of more than three years, 8News has reported extensively on the conditions of the beagles that were housed at the Cumberland County facility. In 2019, drone video captured of the property showed thousands of dogs barking and howling from their cages. Despite videos and photos from a 2017 USDA inspection showing poor treatment of the animals, the department that year gave the breeding facility continued clearance for operation. As recent as the period from July 2021 to May 2022, the USDA cited Envigo with dozens of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) violations. But the facility was permitted to continue its operations.
“The inspectors themselves, the veterinarians who went into these facilities, wanted much more to be done,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Laboratory Investigations Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo told 8News on Friday. “But they — the records show — met a brick wall when it came to the USDA leadership.”
USDA inspection reports obtained by PETA from July 2021 cited “medical problems that had not been identified or treated by the facility,” improper handling of animals, inadequate shelter and enclosures, and insufficient feedings.
But it wasn’t until the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) became involved that Envigo announced its plans to close the Cumberland County facility.
According to a release from the DOJ, in a consent decree entered on July 15, 2022, by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, Envigo RMS, the company behind the Cumberland County facility, “agreed to a permanent prohibition on engaging in any activity at its facility in Cumberland, Virginia, that requires” an AWA license. Approximately 4,000 beagles that were in Envigo’s care at the time were distributed to various shelters and have since been adopted out.
In connection with the DOJ’s involvement in investigating Envigo’s practices in Central Virginia, Dr. Goldentyre was reportedly one of two top USDA officials subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in the Western District of Virginia. A USDA spokesperson declined to provide comment on the matter, but instructed 8News to contact the DOJ. 8News reached out to a spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for that district, which falls within the DOJ, but was told there would be no comment.
“The veterinarians who went into this beagle supply company that has enjoyed contracts with the government, based on their own inspection reports, they should have suspended the license of Envigo immediately,” Guillermo said. “They should have shut down the business itself. They should have referred it to the Department of Justice for a criminal investigation or a civil investigation.”
In a letter sent to President Joe Biden on Wednesday, PETA joined five other animal welfare groups — including the Animal League Defense Fund, Animal Wellness Action, Animal Wellness Foundation, the Center for a Humane Economy, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine — in calling for sweeping leadership changes at the USDA.
“I don’t know what’s going to come out of the grand jury investigation at this point. What we’ll see happen. But we do know that U.S. officials are raising questions about why nothing was done sooner,” Guillermo said. “If the USDA does not do its job, we see animals suffer and we see them die. The beagles, in my opinion, were the tip of the iceberg.”
