Ohio Breeder Agrees to Surrender More Than 1,100 Chinchillas After Federal Inspections
JENERA, Ohio — An Ohio chinchilla breeder has agreed to give up more than 300 animals still at his Hancock County facility after voluntarily surrendering roughly 800 others to animal welfare organizations, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Nov. 4.
A federal court approved a consent decree requiring James F. Ritterspach, president of R & R Chinchilla Inc., to surrender the remaining animals and permanently stop activities regulated by the federal Animal Welfare Act. Under a separate agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ritterspach’s Animal Welfare Act license was permanently revoked.
The Justice Department filed a civil complaint in August after the USDA reported that animals at the facility were in serious danger. R & R Chinchilla had bred the animals for more than 40 years, according to federal officials.
The complaint says USDA inspectors visited the facility 18 times beginning in September 2022 and documented 59 Animal Welfare Act violations over four years. Federal officials alleged that Ritterspach told inspectors the facility housed between 300 and 450 chinchillas while keeping about 800 more in a separate building that had gone uninspected for years.
When inspectors entered that building on Aug. 5, they reported finding several dead animals and chinchillas with eyes so swollen they could barely or could not open them. Inspectors said waste covered the floors of hundreds of enclosures and ammonia fumes made them cough so heavily they had to leave the building. They also reported finding open packets of rat poison beside cages and a metal collar embedded in one animal’s neck.
“Federally licensed pet breeders must adhere to the Animal Welfare Act,” said David M. Toepfer, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. “Animals cannot be abused, kept in dirty cages, and neglected so badly that they suffer or die.”
A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order on Aug. 21. The Justice Department said it secured veterinary access to the animals over the following months. A later court order required the breeder to work with federal officials to surrender about 800 chinchillas. The consent decree covers the more than 300 animals that remained at the facility.
The civil case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio under case number 3:26-cv-01990.
