US Animal Abuse Records Deleted: Trump Strikes Again

[sandgrubber]

U.S. Animal Abuse Records Deleted—What We Stand to Lose

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/wildlife-watch-usda-animal-welfare-trump-records/

By Natasha Daly

PUBLISHED February 6, 2017

Two weeks into the Trump Administration, thousands of documents detailing animal welfare violations nationwide have been removed from the website of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which has been posting them publicly for decades. These are the inspection records and annual reports for every commercial animal facility in the U.S.—including zoos, breeders, factory farms, and laboratories.

These records have revealed many cases of abuse and mistreatment of animals, incidents that, if the reports had not been publicly posted, would likely have remained hidden. This action plunges journalists, animal welfare organizations, and the public at large into the dark about animal welfare at facilities across the country. The records document violations of the Animal Welfare Act, the federal law that regulates treatment of animals used for research and exhibition. The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), which has maintained the online database, cites privacy concerns as justification for the removal.

....refer to the link above for full article

 

IMO . . . yes the AR community goes overboard, but, provided that reporting is factual and not axe grinding,  there is a reason to make reports public. 

[PossumCorner]

Seems pretty bad to me - reading a lot of comments on it over the last day or two, I don't like the privacy concerns being protected, that's an invitation to get away with ill treatment and hide behind legislation.  The AR actions are also 'wrong' at their worst, but that doesn't negate the need for transparency and for the public to access information without needing to go the freedom of information route.