We are bringing the fight to Capitol Hill! Earlier this month, the Physicians
Committee hosted a briefing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's shutdown of
its animal welfare database. On June 8, we brought together a coalition of
lawmakers, national organizations, and a scholar from Harvard Law. The meeting
room under the Capitol was packed with more than 120 congressional staffers.
Congressman Earl Blumenauer spoke to the crowd, and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and
Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) sponsored the event.
Help us keep the pressure on the USDA—e-mail the agency today using this form.
We told you in February that, without warning, the USDA shut down its publicly available animal welfare database. For many years, the online database included inspection reports of research facilities and other institutions regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act. The database also included research facilities' annual reports, which allowed the public to see how many Animal Welfare Act-covered animals were used and by what species.
Earlier this year, the Physicians Committee and a coalition of organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court to reverse the USDA's illegal database shutdown. The Freedom of Information Act (known as FOIA) requires that federal agencies release frequently requested documents to the public in electronic format. According to the USDA, the records contained in the database may make up more than a third of all documents requested.
While the USDA has restored some information to its website, many records are still missing and the searchable database remains shuttered to the public. Please help us by contacting the USDA today.
USDA Finds Animal Welfare Act Violations at Dartmouth
Following a complaint filed by the Physicians
Committee, a U.S. Department of Agriculture report revealed inadequate oversight
of animal training protocols by Dartmouth College’s Institutional Animal Care
and Use Committee. Take Action
>
Animal Welfare
Act Fails to Prevent Needless Animal Use, Suffering,
Deaths
The Animal Welfare Act, passed more than 50 years ago, has not matured past
its infancy in terms of effectively preventing unnecessary and inhumane animal
experiments, says Physicians Committee senior counsel Leslie Rudloff, Esq., in
an article published in the Syracuse Law Review’s Symposium on Animal Law. Lucky’s Story
>
Government
Toxicologists Trained on Method to Replace Animal
Tests
Physicians Committee scientists recently trained more than 70 U.S. government
toxicologists on a software program that quickly and accurately predicts
chemical toxicity without the use of animals. QSAR Toolbox
>
Register for the
International Conference on Nutrition in Medicine
Challenging new questions are being asked: What is the role of the microbiome
in human health? Can we reverse diabetes? How can we break through the
weight-loss plateau? How do we design a medical practice that gives patients the
nutrition information they need and gives clinicians the time and resources to
succeed? Find out the answers to these questions at the International Conference
on Nutrition in Medicine on July 28 and 29 in Washington, D.C. Register
>
TOP TWEETS OF THE
MONTH
Help us keep the pressure on the USDA—e-mail the agency today using this form.
We told you in February that, without warning, the USDA shut down its publicly available animal welfare database. For many years, the online database included inspection reports of research facilities and other institutions regulated under the federal Animal Welfare Act and Horse Protection Act. The database also included research facilities' annual reports, which allowed the public to see how many Animal Welfare Act-covered animals were used and by what species.
Earlier this year, the Physicians Committee and a coalition of organizations filed a lawsuit in federal court to reverse the USDA's illegal database shutdown. The Freedom of Information Act (known as FOIA) requires that federal agencies release frequently requested documents to the public in electronic format. According to the USDA, the records contained in the database may make up more than a third of all documents requested.
While the USDA has restored some information to its website, many records are still missing and the searchable database remains shuttered to the public. Please help us by contacting the USDA today.
USDA Finds Animal Welfare Act Violations at Dartmouth
