An alternative to the charity ensuring enforcement itself would be to hand off this part of the intervention to another organization that is already focused on ensuring law enforcement in India [10] such as HSI/India [59] or the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO) [60].
Do these orgs send auditors/inspectors/undercover investigators?
Follow-up Enforcement Campaign for Feed Fortification for Hens in India
Maybe there are some regulations that could be checked together, so it isn’t just the effect on feed fortification enforcement, but better enforcement for cage-free housing, space, etc., too, at the same time. This might increase the cost-effectiveness of enforcement a few times (if the other regulations have similar welfare impacts). However, if enforcement didn’t seem cost-effective for feed fortification, and lobbying for feed fortification in the first place is much less cost-effective than corporate campaigns, being able to enforce multiple regulations at a time might not make much difference, unless the other regulations have much greater welfare impacts.
Given the unreliable enforcement in India, maybe a charity that focuses on (routine) audits/inspections (or undercover investigations) in India (or specific regions) and raises issues to the appropriate authorities would be worthwhile. Or, we could reach out to organizations in India and offer them donations to do (more of) this, like the Bombay SPCA, which you write have some power to enforce, if I understood correctly. Given the differences in costs of living, it might be fairly cheap for EAs to hire some full-time staff in India to work on this. Maybe we’d just pay for one full-time hire per region to inspect? I suppose this could end up being relatively ineffective for the same reasons enforcement campaigns seem relatively ineffective.
Maybe we could also lobby the government to spend more on enforcement?
I’m unsure what FIAPO do for enforcement, but HSI/India try to improve enforcement by doing workshops with police departments in various states and districts to help them to understand and learn animal welfare laws and how they can implement them as they think that one of the big barriers to poor enforcement is that it is common for enforcement officers to not be aware of new policies.
I’m unsure about the impact of lobbying the government to spend more on enforcement, but I would be more excited about a charity which focuses on enforcement or giving money to existing orgs so that they can do more work on enforcement as you suggested, but again because of the poor enforcement and how difficult it could be to improve this, I would still probably lean towards this not being the best thing we could do.
Do these orgs send auditors/inspectors/undercover investigators?
Maybe there are some regulations that could be checked together, so it isn’t just the effect on feed fortification enforcement, but better enforcement for cage-free housing, space, etc., too, at the same time. This might increase the cost-effectiveness of enforcement a few times (if the other regulations have similar welfare impacts). However, if enforcement didn’t seem cost-effective for feed fortification, and lobbying for feed fortification in the first place is much less cost-effective than corporate campaigns, being able to enforce multiple regulations at a time might not make much difference, unless the other regulations have much greater welfare impacts.
Given the unreliable enforcement in India, maybe a charity that focuses on (routine) audits/inspections (or undercover investigations) in India (or specific regions) and raises issues to the appropriate authorities would be worthwhile. Or, we could reach out to organizations in India and offer them donations to do (more of) this, like the Bombay SPCA, which you write have some power to enforce, if I understood correctly. Given the differences in costs of living, it might be fairly cheap for EAs to hire some full-time staff in India to work on this. Maybe we’d just pay for one full-time hire per region to inspect? I suppose this could end up being relatively ineffective for the same reasons enforcement campaigns seem relatively ineffective.
Maybe we could also lobby the government to spend more on enforcement?
I’m unsure what FIAPO do for enforcement, but HSI/India try to improve enforcement by doing workshops with police departments in various states and districts to help them to understand and learn animal welfare laws and how they can implement them as they think that one of the big barriers to poor enforcement is that it is common for enforcement officers to not be aware of new policies.
I’m unsure about the impact of lobbying the government to spend more on enforcement, but I would be more excited about a charity which focuses on enforcement or giving money to existing orgs so that they can do more work on enforcement as you suggested, but again because of the poor enforcement and how difficult it could be to improve this, I would still probably lean towards this not being the best thing we could do.