U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

May 05, 2021Science Magazine Exclusive: USDA now only partially inspects some lab animal facilities, internal documents reveal

Partial inspections violate the Animal Welfare Act, argues Katherine Meyer, director of Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic, which discovered the change after student Brett Richey combed through more than 1000 pages of internal USDA documents.

Read exclusive coverage by David Grimm in Science Magazine today of a secret policy instituted by the United States Department of Agriculture and uncovered by our Animal Law & Policy Clinic, which reveals that, in violation of the Animal Welfare Act, the department does not fully inspect research labs each year.

The discovery of the policy was made by Harvard Law School student Brett Richey as she combed through over a thousand pages of documents the Clinic received after filing a Freedom of Information Act case on behalf of Rise for Animals and the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

The story was syndicated by The Scientist and you can also read the Animal Law & Policy Clinic’s press release.