Third annual audit · 2025 USDA inspection reports
Findings from 2025 USDA inspections of animal-use laboratories
The National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) is proud to release its third annual Laboratory Animal Care Audit, a comprehensive look at conditions in U.S. animal-use laboratories based on 2025 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspection reports. This report highlights persistent and widespread issues, including inadequate veterinary care, unsanitary environments, and preventable animal suffering.
How the Audit Works
We built this audit from publicly available USDA records. Work through the cards to see what the data means—and what it leaves out.
All the information in this audit is publicly available on the USDA website, usda.gov.
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A focused look at lab animal welfare
This audit covers violations that directly affected lab animal health and welfare. Administrative and record-keeping issues without a clear connection to animal well-being were excluded.
The audit does not evaluate whether an experiment was scientifically justified or whether animals should have been used. USDA inspections assess compliance with minimum legal standards.
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Violations found at the laboratories
USDA inspectors visit registered laboratories to assess compliance with federal animal welfare standards. The violations featured in this audit come from inspection reports issued in 2025.
Small note: Inspections provide only a snapshot of conditions inside a facility.
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How many animals were reported
Research facilities report on the number and species of animals they have each year. The animals are categorized by what USDA-defined pain category they fit into. We use these reports to show the scale of animal use at each facility.
Continue swiping to learn about the pain categories.
Small note: These numbers exclude the most used animals: purpose-bred mice, rats and birds, fish, and cold-blooded animals.
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Breeding or Holding Only
Animals are not used in experiments; they are bred or held at the facility.
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No Pain or Distress
Animals undergo experiments that cause little or no pain or discomfort.
Examples: blood draws, injections given for noninvasive procedures, food restriction, and animals who were killed without being used in any experiments.
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Animals suffer and relief is given.
Animals undergo painful or distressing experiments and relief is provided.
Examples: surgeries performed with anesthesia, post-operative recovery with pain medication, euthanasia under anesthesia.
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Animals suffer and no relief is given.
Animals experience pain or distress without relief.
Examples: toxicology testing, exposure to toxic stimuli the animal cannot avoid, exposure to extreme environmental conditions, paralysis of a conscious animal, infection studies in which animals are left untreated.
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What happened after a violation
We reviewed enforcement records to determine whether facilities faced consequences for their violations of the Animal Welfare Act. In 2025, no facilities received a penalty for their violations.
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Report highlights
By compiling and analyzing these government records, NAVS aims to increase public awareness of the realities faced by animals in laboratories. We hope this audit serves as both a call to action and a tool for accountability—urging research institutions and regulatory agencies to do better. The animals confined in laboratories deserve more than minimum standards; they deserve transparency, oversight, and a path toward replacement with non-animal models and methods.
Bred or held for use, not yet used in research
30,966 animalsUsed in research with no pain or distress
98,468 animalsPain or distress with relief provided
49,106 animalsPain or distress without relief
5,996 animalsFacilities explorer
Narrow the list by state, animal, USDA pain category, issue theme or record — pick as many as you like in each — or search the findings. A facility has to match every group you use. Select one to read its findings in full.
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Filters combine — a facility must match every group you use. Within a group, any selection counts.
Each number is how many facilities that one option would show on its own, alongside your other filters. Selecting more than one in the same group widens the list. ★ counts are the ones matching your interests. An Official Warning carries no financial penalty; no facility in this audit was fined.
Showing all 92 facilities
Use the up and down arrow keys to move through the list. Press Enter or Space to open a facility.
The numbers
Research facilities report the number and species of animals they hold each year, sorted into the USDA's four pain categories. These are the totals across the facilities in this audit.
| Category | What it means | Animals |
|---|---|---|
| B | Bred or held for use, not yet used in research | 30,966 |
| C | Used in research with no pain or distress | 98,468 |
| D | Pain or distress with relief provided | 49,106 |
| E | Pain or distress without relief | 5,996 |
| Total | All categories | 184,536 |
What this total counts. It is the sum of the per-facility Total rows captured from the audit. Thirteen facilities report a single species without a summary Total row, and six facilities have no annual-report counts, so they are outside this sum. [Derived] Adding every individual species row in the audit instead gives 201,334 animals. Per-facility figures on each card come straight from that facility's own table.
The audit is only part of the story
The scale goes far beyond the facilities in this audit. These numbers show the broader reach of animal use—and the limits of federal oversight.
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Animals were counted in annual reports for 2025. This does not include purpose-bred mice, rats, or birds, fish or clod-blooded animals.
Laboratories reported using and keeping animals for research purposes in 2025.
Estimated mice and rats used in research each year. Laboratories are not required to count or report them.
USDA inspectors are tasked with inspecting all animal-use enterprises in the United States.
Site inspections are conducted annually by the USDA.
minimum floor space allowed for a 8 lb cat under federal standards
minimum floor space allowed for a 100 lb pig under federal standards
minimum floor space allowed for a 33 lb dog under federal standards
About the data
Inspections are part of the USDA's mandate to enforce the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), which outlines the minimum standards of care and treatment for animals used for research, exhibition, transport, breeding, and dealers. The issues documented in this audit are violations of the AWA that USDA inspectors noted on 2025 inspection reports while inspecting laboratories that use animals. It is important to note that because inspectors spend very little time at each facility, sometimes only a few hours per year, inspectors rely heavily on self-reporting to find out how animals are treated and what they are experiencing in the laboratory environment.
When USDA inspectors find violations of the AWA at animal-use laboratories, they have few enforcement options. As you will see in the audit, issuing Official Warnings is the most common enforcement mechanism. These warnings carry no financial penalty and have proven ineffective at prompting meaningful change at laboratories. As a result, even serious or repeat violations frequently go unpunished, weakening the deterrent effect of the law.
There are also a handful of settlements resulting in civil penalties (fines) detailed in the audit. Of note, last summer the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Securities and Exchange Commission cannot assess fines for securities fraud on its own—only the Department of Justice can, through a jury trial. While the decision doesn't explicitly affect the USDA, the ruling has cast a shadow: since that time, the USDA hasn’t issued any civil fines.
This audit does not include information from laboratories that exclusively use animals not regulated by the USDA. Under the AWA, the most frequently used species in research—mice of the genus Mus, rats of the genus Rattus, purpose-bred birds, fish, invertebrates, and other cold-blooded animals—are excluded from the legal definition of “animal.” As a result, laboratories using only these species are not required to register with the USDA, undergo routine inspections, or report their animal use under AWA guidelines. Facilities that use both included and excluded species only report on included species in their annual reports.
It is also important to note that USDA inspections do not assess the ethical justification or scientific validity of the animal research being conducted. Therefore, this audit focuses solely on documented findings from USDA inspections of registered animal-use laboratories during 2025 and does not consider scientific validity or justifications of animal use.
While this report highlights key concerns related to the care and housing of animals, it is not an exhaustive account of all issues observed at these facilities. We intentionally excluded purely administrative violations that did not directly impact animal health or welfare, though we recognize that such deficiencies can still pose risks to animals. Finally, all photos in this report are stock images and are not associated with the facilities described.
Take action
They deserve transparency, oversight, and a path toward replacement with non-animal models and methods.
All the information in this audit is publicly available on the USDA website, usda.gov.
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This is the complete report — all 92 facilities across 28 states, not a sample.
Included: every facility entry in the 2026 Laboratory Animal Care Audit — 92 laboratories in 28 states — with its full verbatim findings, repeat-offender note, enforcement note and USDA pain-category table.
Not included (as stated in the report): laboratories that exclusively use animals not regulated by the USDA; purely administrative violations that did not directly impact animal health or welfare; and any assessment of the scientific validity or ethical justification of the research.
Data gaps carried through from the source: six facilities have no annual-report animal counts (four state that no annual report could be found; two reported zero animals for fiscal year 2025). Their cards say so plainly.