Ohio Pet Breeder Agrees to Surrender Over 1,100 Chinchillas: About 800 Were Concealed for Years, License Permanently Revoked
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio on November 2 endorsed a consent decree entered between the United States and the owner of R & R Chinchilla Inc. to surrender over 300 remaining chinchillas at a breeding facility in Jenera, Ohio, the Justice Department announced on November 3. The court order follows R & R Chinchilla's voluntary surrender of roughly 800 additional chinchillas to animal welfare organizations pursuant to a modified temporary restraining order. In total, more than 1,100 chinchillas are involved.
After receiving a referral from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that animals were in serious danger, the Justice Department in August filed a complaint against R & R Chinchilla and its president, James F. Ritterspach. The complaint alleged failures on multiple occasions to comply with the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and its regulations and standards for the humane care, handling, and treatment of around 1,100 chinchillas at the company's Hancock County facility. R & R Chinchilla has bred chinchillas for over 40 years. Chinchillas are small animals with dense, soft fur, weighing one to two pounds, and are typically categorized as exotic pets.
According to the complaint, since September 2022 the USDA conducted 18 inspections of the facility, and in nearly every inspection multiple violations of the AWA were identified, with 59 violations occurring within the past four years. On August 5, USDA inspectors gained access to a previously undisclosed building and found hundreds of animals in dire conditions: animals with eyes so swollen and oozing with discharge that they could not open them; fecal material covering the entire floor of hundreds of enclosures; ammonia levels so high they caused inspectors to cough to the point of having to leave the building; open packets of rat poison kept right next to enclosures housing chinchillas; and a metal collar becoming tightly embedded in the neck of an animal. Inspectors also observed multiple dead animals in the facility. Deputy Administrator Bernadette Juarez of USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Animal Care program said inspectors documented deeply troubling conditions, including "the concealment of approximately 800 additional chinchillas in a second structure that had been withheld from inspection for years," and that USDA had issued an official warning in 2024 and taken multiple enforcement actions, including two summary suspensions, before advancing the case with the Justice Department.
"Animal breeders and caretakers that are federally licensed have an obligation to comply with basic standards Congress established to provide clean water, adequate food and housing, and sufficient veterinary care to their animals," said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department's Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). U.S. Attorney David M. Toepfer for the Northern District of Ohio said: "Federally licensed pet breeders must adhere to the Animal Welfare Act. Animals cannot be abused, kept in dirty cages, and neglected so badly that they suffer or die."
The complaint also alleged that Ritterspach had lied to inspectors, claiming the facility held only 300 to 450 animals while in fact hiding about 800 more in a separate building for years to evade inspection; inspectors described conditions in that building as the worst they had seen at any facility they had inspected. The complaint further alleged that Ritterspach once grabbed a chinchilla by the tail and tore off a mat of fur roughly 4 by 6 inches. Gustafson added that the settlement had resulted in all of the animals involved being safely transferred.
ENRD and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio filed a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction motion on August 20. The court granted the temporary restraining order on August 21 and later issued a modified order agreed to by the parties, which required R & R Chinchilla and Ritterspach to work with the United States to surrender approximately 800 of the animals at the facility. Under the terms of the consent decree, Ritterspach agreed to relinquish the remaining chinchillas and permanently cease any further AWA-regulated activity. Ritterspach also entered into a consent decree and order with USDA that permanently revokes his AWA license. The case number is 3:26-cv-01990.
(Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：一只长尾龙猫（资料图）。Emőke Dénes 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: A long-tailed chinchilla (file photo). Photo by Emőke Dénes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
