U.S. Senator Bob Menendez Demands Animal Cruelty Data Be Restored to USDA Website - National Humane Education Society

Paws Up!

To U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-New Jersey) for urging the Trump Administration to restore data on the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) website that gave information detailed records, inspection and license information from animal breeders. 

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is the federal agency responsible for licensing, inspecting, and citing businesses that profit from animals, up to and including commercial dog breeders, circuses, laboratories that conduct animal testing, and zoos. Earlier this month, Americans were baffled to find that detailed logs containing years’ worth of inspection reports and citations describing violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) had been scrubbed from the USDA APHIS’ website. Currently, there is a notation on the website where the scrubbed reports could once be found. Among other justifications, the notation claims that the data was removed to protect privacy rights of entities regulated by the USDA.

The now-vanished information  enabled private citizens, non profit organizations (including NHES) and legislators to research identify animal cruelty offenders, and make informed decisions about companies that work with animals. According to a recent news article, a group of U.S. Senators, led by Senator Bob Menendez is calling on the Trump Administration to restore the data to the website.

Take action. Contact your U.S. legislators, and President Trump, and urge them to re-instate animal cruelty data to the USDA website.