USDA abruptly purges animal welfare information from its website

[highplainsdem]

Source: WaPo

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday abruptly removed inspection reports and other information from its website about the treatment of animals at thousands of research laboratories, zoos, dog breeding operations and other facilities.

In a statement, the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service cited court rulings and privacy laws for the decision, which it said was the result of a “comprehensive review” that took place over the past year. It said the removed documents, which also included records of enforcement actions against violators of the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act, would now be accessible only via Freedom of Information Act Requests. Those can take years to be approved.

-snip-

The records that had been available were frequently used by animal welfare advocates to monitor government regulation of animal treatment at circuses, scientific labs and zoos. Journalists have used the documents to expose violations at universities.

Members of the public could also use the department’s online database to search for information about dog breeders, as could pet stores. Seven states currently require pet stores to source puppies from breeders with clean USDA inspection reports, according to the Humane Society of the United States — a requirement that could now be impossible to meet.

-snip-



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/02/03/the-usda-abruptly-removes-animal-welfare-information-from-its-website/

[retrowire]

1. Fucking great.

I knew the vegan fight would get harder under Trump, I was just waiting for what it would be.

Son of a bitch.

[C Moon]

12. I knew this was going to happen, too. Probably also food regulations will become less and less.

[dalton99a]

2. Heck, Trump will bring back torture for animals

[radical noodle]

3. They've gone rogue too

Follow them on twitter

https://twitter.com/altusda

[Rhiannon12866]

29. Done! Thanks!

[radical noodle]

30. You're welcome

I hope a lot of people follow them. Twitter is now a better way to keep up with things. I resisted for long long but now I'm glad to be there. There's an amazing amount of support out there.

[Rhiannon12866]

32. I spent a lot of time there when DU was down

I joined a long time ago, but never paid much attention. But when I started retweeting news articles, all of a sudden I started getting "followers," and it really is amazing, the anti-Trump movement is alive and well on Twitter! I've shared information from DU that's been pretty popular and now that we're seeing so much from Twitter being posted on DU it's really the way to go to keep up on things...

[montana_hazeleyes]

4. Evil. Evil . Bastards!

Animals need protection! They are helpless.

[bdamomma]

5. These are evil people

these are our terrorists .

They are striping us of everything. This the stench of Steve Bannon.

[democratisphere]

6. Typical psychopathic behavior for a person that has no pets.

Animal abuse will rise but this must be stopped. Damn I loathe rethugs.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Psychopaths begin by practicing on pets ... and move on to people. . . nt

[manicraven]

26. Yes. I think tRump is actually a psychopath more than a narcissist.

[TeamPooka]

8. Welcome to an informationless federal government. Keep the people ignorant and fleece away.

[JudyM]

9. This breaks my heart. We already had so far to go and now they will be setting us back.

[Judi Lynn]

11. You're not alone. Somehow all this destruction must be ended, it's too evil to continue. n/t

[Equinox Moon]

10. Catastrophic destruction for no reason.

My heart breaks a few times each day.

[SunSeeker]

13. Evil fuckers.

[TomCADem]

14. Nazi Bookburnings/Fahrenheit 451 Updated for the Internet Age

In the 1930s, the Nazi conducted ceremonial book burnings. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, pacifist, Religious, classical liberal, anarchist, socialist, and communist authors, among others:

Today, scientific data is being systematically purged from numerous federal websites under the Trump regime.

[dhill926]

15. animal rights people tend to be....

VERY motivated. And the concern for animals goes across party lines. this could get interesting...

[JudyM]

17. Very motivated but also not very organized... we are splintered while their lobbies are profession-

ally organized, like most rethug interest groups.

I do hope you are correct, though.

[hamsterjill]

23. Agreed. Too much infighting.

At least in my own neck of the woods. I'd love to see us all come together under one strategy because, man, could we roar!!!

[JudyM]

24. So true. One of these days ... And if only the progressive spiritual groups were as fired up as the

conservatives are, because they could bring a powerful voice of morality into it.

[radical noodle]

31. I actually know a lot of Trump voters who also love animals

but I've given up on them ever seeing trump for what he is.

[nikibatts]

16. First they came for the humans. Then they came for the animals.

And there were no humans left to protect them.

[CottonBear]

18. USDA transition leader is a pro-puppy mill lobbyist.

From Daily Kos:

You're kidding, right?
Trump's transition team gains a new member: The pro-puppy mills guy
Dec 14, 2016 9:00pm EST by Hunter

The Trump transition team, Department of Agriculture edition, has a new member. Because Donald Trump has so reliably surrounded himself with walking cartoons, it's Brian Klippenstein, executive director of far-right astroturf group Protect the Harvest.

The group is dedicated to fighting humane animal farming legislation, such as minimum cage sizes for pigs and chickens—but you almost certainly best know them from their vigorous defense of puppy mills.

Protect the Harvest's zeal to fight regulation of animal farming extends even to "puppy mills"—large facilities that churn out dogs like factory farms churn out pigs. Back in 2010, the year Protect the Harvest was founded, it vigorously opposed a Missouri ballot measure to "require large-scale dog breeding operations to provide each dog under their care with sufficient food, clean water, housing and space; necessary veterinary care; regular exercise and adequate rest between breeding cycles," and to "prohibit any breeder from having more than 50 breeding dogs for the purpose of selling their puppies as pets."
Yep, that's right. One of the new focuses of a Trump-led Department of Agriculture may well be loosening the restrictions on ... puppy mills.

Walking cartoons, one and all.

http://m.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/15/1610638/-Trump-s-transition-team-gains-a-new-member-The-pro-puppy-mills-guy

[myrna minx]

19. This administration represents cruelty and greed.

[dembotoz]

20. This could be useful. Like Romney and the dog on top the car

Folks like their pets more than many family members


Gop hates doggies and. Well we know how they feel about pussy...

[spiderpig]

21. Has anyone ever heard of the Orange Menace having a pet?

You can tell a lot about people by how they behave around animals.

He strikes me as the kind of psychotic who would pose smiling for a photo with your puppy and then, walking away, would say to his minion "shoot the dog".

[Bayard]

22. I always say

You can't trust a person that doesn't like animals.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated. - Mahatma Gandhi

[Rhiannon12866]

33. I completely agree!

That used to be my signature here. I obviously need a new one, it's a good time to go back to that one...

[Sunlei]

25. They'll remove Obama's upgrade to the FOIA system next and we'll be back to bush days where it took

7 years to drag out USDA photos of wild horses with their eyes stabbed out so they would travel 48 hours stuffed in double decker trailers 'quieter' on their way to the old American slaughter houses.

Our "transparent" government is going away.

[shenmue]

27. Trump sucks

[johnp3907]

28. My bumper sticker!

Verbatim.