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One casualty of the mass firings across federal health agencies are regulators who ensure drugs for pets and livestock are safe and effective. The cuts hit the Center for Veterinary Medicine, an arm of the Food and Drug Administration that regulates the safety and efficacy of drugs, food and medical devices for animals.
The center's work has an impact on many different animals, including household pets, like dogs, cats and hamsters. It's also responsible for making sure that human food from animals being treated with medications (such as antibiotics and hormones) is safe to eat, including dairy cows, egg-laying hens and other livestock.
Some of those who lost their jobs were responsible for reviewing data-heavy material from companies that manufacture veterinary drugs to determine whether those are safe and effective, the sources told NPR.
One staffer who received their termination letter over the weekend said the majority of their work had involved regularly reviewing reports on drugs that are on the market to make sure manufacturers were following quality standards and preventing contamination, among other things.
Like many other federal workers who were fired by the Trump administration, the individual was still in their probationary period — a prolonged trial of one to two years for new employees or those who have moved to new positions — which meant they had fewer worker protections.
Marcos Contreras, director of pharmacy at the University of California, Davis, Veterinary Teaching Hospital, says news of the cuts was concerning. "Anything entering the [veterinary] market, just like a human drug, needs oversight and regulation to make sure that they are putting safe stuff out there," he says.
The losses will deplete staffing in an already backlogged area of FDA, meaning those workers that are left could be forced to "rush through their work," in order to meet deadlines, one of the current FDA staffers told NPR.
What's more, the cuts may not save the government money, the sources said. The majority of salaries of many of the terminated staffers are paid by user fees, which veterinary drug companies pay the FDA to hire more staff and ensure product reviews happen in a timely manner.
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Not a pet owner. However, if my 20% rebate comes at the expense of someone else’s helpless pets … I don’t want it.