USDA Restores its Animal Welfare Database!
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FROM Physicians Committee
February 2020

In February 2017, USDA shuttered the Animal Care Information System without any warning.This week, after Congress required that USDA restore the database, most of it is back! Unfortunately, some records are still missing, so we will remain vigilant to make sure the agency does not backslide. But this is huge progress.

Thanks to your activism, the hard work of the Physicians Committee, and the combined effort of many like-minded organizations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has finally restored its online animal welfare database—more than three years after abruptly shutting it down!

You may remember that in February 2017, USDA shuttered the Animal Care Information System without any warning. This is the online database that included inspection reports of research facilities and other institutions regulated under the Animal Welfare Act. The database also included research facilities' annual reports, which allowed the public to see the number and species of Animal Welfare Act-covered animals used at those facilities. It became clear that USDA removed the information to appease the companies it regulates by making sure that the public did not know what those companies were doing. USDA now calls those regulated companies, which include research facilities and puppy mills, “customers,” as if the agency exists to serve them.

Immediately after the shutdown, the Physicians Committee partnered with other concerned organizations to file a lawsuit in federal court to reverse the USDA's action. The Physicians Committee also worked with a large coalition of organizations to lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill and hosted a June 2017 briefing for members of Congress and their staff.

Although USDA restored many documents in August 2017, the database had greatly changed. For example, USDA stopped publicly posting records related to enforcement and instead planned to post "statistical summaries each calendar quarter." Considering the agency's woeful enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, that was troubling news. You and thousands of others wrote to the agency to demand full transparency.

Finally, this week, after Congress required that USDA restore the database, most of it is back! Unfortunately, some records are still missing, so we will remain vigilant to make sure the agency does not backslide. But this is huge progress.

You helped make this possible! Thank you for your continued support!

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