Senator Stabenow Seeks Information from USDA After Removal of Animal Welfare Records

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, & Forestry, wrote Acting Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Michael Young to gather information regarding the recent removal of animal welfare data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) website.

On February 3, 2017, USDA removed thousands of records containing important information about compliance to animal welfare laws from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) website without notice. As a result, many have voiced concerns over transparency of the agency and its enforcement of cruelty prevention laws including the Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act.

“Such information had been publicly posted on APHIS’s website for years,” Stabenow wrote. “The information was a valuable resource to provide transparency into USDA’s enforcement of these important animal welfare laws and allowed the public to see cases of abuse and mistreatment of animals.”

The full text of the letter and questions for Young’s response are below.

February 16, 2017

Michael Young
Acting Deputy Secretary of Agriculture
United States Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, D.C. 20250

Dear Acting Deputy Secretary Young,

I am writing to express my concern about the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) actions on February 3, 2017, to remove information regarding enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the Horse Protection Act (HPA) from USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) website.  The documents that USDA removed contained important information about enforcement of and compliance with animal welfare laws in the 8,000 licensed U.S. facilities that use animals, including commercial dog breeding facilities, animal research laboratories, animals in zoos and aquariums, and Tennessee Walking horse exhibitors.  Specifically, the types of documents removed included facility inspection reports, lists of regulated entities, enforcement records, and research facility annual reports. Such information had been publicly posted on APHIS’s website for years.  The information was a valuable resource to provide transparency into USDA’s enforcement of these important animal welfare laws and allowed the public to see cases of abuse and mistreatment of animals. 

Given this action to remove information was made with no warning and little explanation, many questions have surfaced. I ask that you provide me with a written response to the following questions no later than March 1, 2017. 

1. Please provide me with a detailed list of all information USDA removed from the APHIS’s website related to the AWA and HPA.  Describe the entire basis for USDA’s decision to remove the information.  Who made the decision to remove this information? Was this decision made solely by APHIS or were other Administration officials involved in making this decision?   
2. Why did USDA decide now to remove this information even though it had long been previously been posted on the USDA’s website? 
3. Is it USDA’s position that any laws or regulations required the removal of enforcement information for the AWA and HPA? Please provide any such legal basis for each type of information removed from the website. 
4. Did any administration policy changes require the removal of this information?  If so, please provide such policies. 
5. The Freedom of Information Act requires the public disclosure of certain information.  For example, section 552 requires making available documents “likely to become subject of subsequent requests for substantially the same records.”  Given that these types of records have been used for years by animal welfare groups and others, do you believe removal of these records violates this provision of the Freedom of Information Act? 
6. APHIS stated that those seeking information related to AWA and HPA should submit Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Generally, it takes a long time to get responses to FOIA requests.  What alternative methods will USDA commit to use to make the types of documents that USDA recently removed from APHIS’s website available in a timely fashion? 

#