{"id":94,"date":"2018-09-07T14:14:30","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T18:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/?p=94"},"modified":"2018-09-07T14:14:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T18:14:30","slug":"a-bipartisan-challenge-to-animal-experimentation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/2018\/09\/07\/a-bipartisan-challenge-to-animal-experimentation\/","title":{"rendered":"A Bipartisan Challenge to Animal Experimentation"},"content":{"rendered":"

An advocacy group called the White Coat Waste Project has filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) has wrongfully withheld documents related to experiments conducted on cats at its Beltsville, Maryland Agricultural Research Center.\u00a0 White Coat Waste Project v. United States Department of Agriculture<\/em>, No. 1:18-cv-02070 (D.D.C.).\u00a0 Using the federal Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), the White Coat Waste Project requested records related to the USDA’s “Toxoplasmosis in Cats” study, including veterinary records for all cats and kittens used in the experiment, as well as a complete project budget.\u00a0 Having received no response to its FOIA request within the statutory time limit, the White Coat Waste Project filed the lawsuit seeking a declaration that the USDA’s failure to respond to its FOIA request was unlawful, ordering USDA to produce the requested records, and for its attorneys’ fees.<\/p>\n

FOIA, 5 U.S.C. \u00a7 552,\u00a0is a federal statute that allows members of\u00a0the public to request and receive certain records controlled by agencies of the United States government (subject to certain exemptions, such as documents that are classified or contain trade secrets, 5 U.S.C. \u00a7 552(b)).\u00a0 In the event the agency does not adequately\u00a0comply in the proper time frame (generally 20 days), the statute gives individuals a right to sue the agency in federal court to obtain the records.\u00a0 5 U.S.C. \u00a7 552(a)(4)(B).\u00a0\u00a0The statute places the burden in such cases on the government agency and allows the\u00a0court to assess attorneys’ fees against the United States in the event the plaintiff prevails.\u00a0 5 U.S.C. \u00a7 552(a)(4)(B), (E)(i).<\/p>\n

This lawsuit represents an interesting challenge to federal animal testing.\u00a0 The White Coat Waste Project describes itself as a “taxpayer watchdog organization,” Compl. \u00b6 4, a mantle often taken up by those of a more conservative persuasion.\u00a0 However, its focus is on stopping animal experiments, a pet project of many more liberal animal rights activists.\u00a0 Indeed, the attorney who filed the complaint in this case was formerly employed by the PETA Foundation.\u00a0 Agencies involved in animal testing thus need to be prepared for bipartisan attacks from both sides who, through various methods — including by FOIA’ing and publicizing their documents, seek to end animal experimentation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An advocacy group called the White Coat Waste Project has filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that the United States Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) has wrongfully withheld documents related to experiments conducted on cats at its Beltsville, Maryland Agricultural Research Center.\u00a0 White Coat Waste Project v. United States Department of Agriculture, No. 1:18-cv-02070 (D.D.C.).\u00a0 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “A Bipartisan Challenge to Animal Experimentation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":319,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[126,81,15],"ppma_author":[699],"class_list":["post-94","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-animal-testing","tag-foia","tag-rebecca-bazan"],"authors":[{"term_id":699,"user_id":319,"is_guest":0,"slug":"rebazan","display_name":"Rebecca E. Bazan","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/38\/2018\/06\/bazanrebecca-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/319"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/animallawdevelopments\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=94"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}