The Department of Animal Resources is facing a “staffing crisis” which has forced the implementation of multiple “emergency measures,” according to an April 28 memo signed by DAR Executive Director Ari Aycock-Williams. 

The memo, which was first reported on by Morning, Trojan, stated DAR will be forced to delay the purchasing of new animals and clean facilities “sporadically” in order to maintain essential operations.

DAR is responsible for daily care and support for research and teaching animals at USC. The memo stated the department is operating with a 17% staff deficit and had been unable to hire new employees since January.

In a statement to the Daily Trojan on May 22, the University wrote that hiring in DAR resumed in a “measured way” despite a University-wide hiring freeze sparked by uncertainty regarding federal funding as well as a structural deficit. 

“Animal care is a top priority at USC. All commitments to federal animal care guidelines will continue to be honored,” the statement read. “The emergency measures described by our Department of Animal Resources are intended to help ensure that USC continues to meet or exceed these federal guidelines.”

In the memo, Aycock-Williams wrote that researchers should clean their animal facilities themselves and contact their research dean to advocate for a “blanket reversal” of the hiring freeze at the DAR. 

“If attrition continues, this crisis will quickly escalate to unobserved animals, animal welfare noncompliance, research project delays, loss of accreditation, loss of all federal funding, and reputational damage that far outweigh any perceived savings,” the memo read.

After the release of DAR’s internal memo, Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, a national animal rights watchdog group, filed a federal complaint against USC. The report, which was written by SAEN Executive Director Michael Budkie, expressed doubt that the sole veterinarian at DAR can adequately care for USC’s animals and called for an increase in animal care staff. 

“I do not believe that it is possible for the animals at USC to be given care that complies with both the Animal Welfare Act and [Public Health Service] Policy with the current staffing levels,” the report read. “The health … of hundreds of animals, as well as the proper conduct of research has been jeopardized by the recent staffing cuts at this laboratory, and they must be held accountable!”

 This is not the first time the watchdog group has raised issues with USC. SAEN filed a federal complaint against USC in 2021 after obtaining internal USC reports that alleged researchers had made excessive lacerations to pigs’ necks, overdosed mice with opioids and performed unnecessary amputations on mice. SAEN filed an additional complaint against USC in 2024 after a USDA inspection revealed that USC euthanized three rabbits after “out-of-protocol” eye surgery.  

In an interview with the Daily Trojan on May 26, Budkie said reduced staff could cause unsafe conditions — such as clogged water bottles or respiratory infections — going unnoticed until it is too late. 

“The animals are supposed to be observed daily, because that’s the only way you can tell if the behavior and the condition of the animal has changed from one day to the next,” Budkie said. “If they’re doing these observations less frequently … instead of finding an animal that is in need of care, they could be finding an animal that’s dead.”

Mia Moore Walker, an undergraduate assistant for the USC Cnidarian Evolutionary Ecology Lab and a sophomore majoring in biology, said budget cuts to DAR could negatively impact research, innovation and animals and emphasized the importance of keeping animals used for research happy and healthy.

“Decreased resources, decreased sanitation, that leads to less care and attending to the animals, which leads to more death and more incidents with animals, which leads to less research and then having to replace the test animals … [which leads to] more money being spent that these places don’t have,” Moore said.

As a part of its “emergency measures,” DAR reduced its frequency of changing cages for single-housed and juvenile mice to every 28 days. The National Research Council, which advises the federal government in scientific matters, advised enclosures to be cleaned at least every two weeks in a 2011 guide considered the current federal standard to animal care in labs. 

In the memo, Aycock-Williams linked three studies published by the National Institutes of Health that found less frequent cleanings do not negatively impact animals. Budkie, however, said to the Daily Trojan that less-frequent cleaning may cause USC to violate the USDA’s sanitation regulations, which state enclosures should be cleaned “as often as necessary to prevent contamination of the animals contained therein and to minimize disease hazards.”

“A lot of people have had … animals like hamsters or guinea pigs as pets in their home, and very often, people will clean and change the animal’s cage weekly,” Budkie said. “An animal’s enclosure can become very soiled in a month’s time. I doubt that individuals that had companion animals — that had cages in their home — would let them go for a month without cleaning them.”