A juvenile male deer mouse was found dead in its cage without food at a University of South Carolina laboratory on July 14, 2025, after staff weaned it four days earlier and then failed to provide food, according to a USDA inspection report. Routine daily monitoring did not catch the missing food or the animal's decline before it died, the report found. Federal regulators did not formally issue the resulting critical citation under the Animal Welfare Act until September 2026, more than a year after the mouse's death.
The timeline between the mouse's death and the eventual citation was detailed by the Post and Courier, which covered the inspection in depth. A critical designation under USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service guidelines, as outlined by the Dog Breeder Licensing Center, represents a severe non-compliance finding that directly threatens animal health or welfare; inspectors set correction dates according to the seriousness of the problem, with direct violations subject to a maximum 14-day deadline. Watchdog group Stop Animal Exploitation NOW!, known as SAEN, publicized the inspection findings and described the citation as rare, saying the mouse's death followed at least six other USC lab incidents involving multiple federal regulatory violations since 2023, according to reporting first published by The Cool Down.
A Pattern Watchdogs Say Stretches Back Years
Among those prior incidents, the Post and Courier's reporting indicates a May 2024 starvation case in which two newly weaned mice died, part of a project funded by a $775,000 National Institute of Mental Health grant studying repetitive behavior disorders like obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism, per the outlet Here Columbia. SAEN research analyst Stacey Ellison alleged that animals are repeatedly left to languish for days and starve at USC because staff cannot consistently provide the basic care required by law, according to The Cool Down's reporting.
In November 2022, a separate USC experiment dosing cocaine-addicted rats with electric shocks was halted after an internal investigation confirmed the shock levels exceeded approved animal care protocols, a case that involved National Institute on Drug Abuse funding, as reported by East Idaho News. In 2023, USC sent four disclosure letters to the NIH Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare, reporting noncompliance that included an unapproved euthanasia method for mice, improper handling of hazardous materials, failure to euthanize sick rats, sanitation problems, and an unauthorized mouse procedure that may have contributed to tail amputations, per The Cool Down. Those letters were required because institutions receiving federal research grants are legally obligated under Public Health Service policy to report serious noncompliance to that federal office, the same Here Columbia report notes.
USC Points to Accreditation and Policy Changes
USC spokesperson Jeff Stensland said the university reported the mouse's accidental death to the USDA, NIH, and AAALAC International immediately after it occurred, and that all personnel directly involved were disciplined in accordance with university policy for failing to follow standard operating procedures. Stensland also noted that USC has maintained continuous voluntary accreditation from AAALAC International for more than 40 years, an arrangement that requires rigorous peer-review site visits every three years.
University officials said they enhanced daily monitoring practices after the mouse's death to optimize animal welfare and prevent recurrence, and that USC has recorded zero subsequent animal care noncompliance incidents since deploying the revised system in July 2025. SAEN has nonetheless formally petitioned the USDA for maximum statutory financial penalties, citing at least six USC lab incidents since 2023.
Why Fines Have Become Rarer Nationwide
That push for maximum penalties runs against a broader national trend. An October 2025 Animal Welfare Institute report found that USDA civil penalty enforcement under the Animal Welfare Act plummeted from 63 fines between April 2023 and June 2024 to just five fines over the following year, a drop largely attributed to agency legal adjustments following the U.S. Supreme Court's Jarkesy decision, according to Courthouse News Service. USDA APHIS oversees roughly 1,200 registered research facilities nationwide under the Animal Welfare Act, the same outlet reports.
