USDA reposts animal welfare records it purged from its website in 2017
Source: Washington Post
USDA reposts animal welfare records it purged from its website in 2017
By Karin Brulliard
2/19/2020, 3:19:11 p.m.
The U.S. Agriculture Department restored to its website animal welfare inspection reports for dog breeding operations and other facilities on Tuesday, the deadline set by Congress for providing searchable access to documents the agency abruptly removed three years ago.
Tuesday’s move made available unredacted reports for nearly 10,000 zoos, circuses, breeders, research labs and Tennessee walking horse shows that were publicly available on Jan. 30, 2017 — days before they were purged — as well as those generated since, the department said. The reports, based on unannounced inspections, can be used by the agency to build cases against facilities that violate animal welfare regulations, and animal protection groups had long used them to call attention to operations they said treated animals inhumanely.
The USDA said in 2017 that it removed the reports and other records over concerns about due process and privacy rights of animal business owners. It later reposted some, but in heavily redacted form. Others were available only through Freedom of Information Act requests, which could take months or years to be fulfilled.
Over the past three years, animal welfare groups have filed several lawsuits aimed at forcing the agency to restore the records. They also lobbied Congress. In December, U.S. lawmakers passed a spending bill that ordered the USDA to bring back the searchable database and use it to publish various animal welfare records.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/02/19/usda-reposts-animal-welfare-records-it-purged-its-website-2017/
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Source: ASPCA
Compelled by Congress, USDA Begins Restoring Database of Animal Welfare Records
February 20, 2020
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) abruptly purged tens of thousands of records related to the inspection of commercial dog breeders, zoos and research institutions and, for the past three years, continued to block public access to these animal welfare records.
Bolstered by the tireless work of advocates and supporters of both animal welfare and government transparency, in December 2019 the ASPCA lobbied Congress to pass a law requiring the USDA to restore the animal welfare records and to post complete inspection reports and enforcement records moving forward.
On February 18, 2020, the deadline to comply with the Congressional directive, the agency removed redactions on thousands of inspection reports and restored reports dating back to 2014 to its website. It has not yet posted the required enforcement records and has failed to restore much of the functionality from the earlier database.
Now that partial transparency has been restored, it is critical that the information contained in these documents—along with information that still remains inaccessible—is used to hold the USDA accountable for its failure to protect the hundreds of thousands of animals across the U.S. who live in commercial facilities.
The suppression of these records was part of a calculated effort by the USDA to rollback, water down and weaken regulations, policies and practices intended to ensure the humane care of animals. ...
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Read more: https://www.aspca.org/news/compelled-congress-usda-begins-restoring-database-animal-welfare-records
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