State regulators are not consistently pursuing penalties for substandard animal shelters, kennels and breeding facilities, a new audit report shows.
State auditors found that the state's Animal Facilities Inspection Program — run by the Agriculture Department — lacked policies to ensure that penalties were "consistent, appropriate or progressively severe" across facilities.
Auditors examined 33 cases where a facility failed at least three consecutive inspections from 2013 to 2017. In about two-thirds of those cases, they found that regulators did not consistently levy a penalty.
"We could . . .
SSJ
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