The linkurl:United States Department of Agriculture (USDA);http://www.usda.gov/ must post annual reports from animal research facilities that document the levels of pain and distress experienced by animals in experimental procedures, according to a court settlement last week (July 1) of a lawsuit between the USDA and linkurl:The Humane Society of the United States.;http://www.hsus.org/
"We have been taking a variety of steps to increase transparency on a number of issues, [and] the agreement we reached with the Human Society is consistent with that," said USDA spokesperson Andrea McNally. According to the Humane Society, the USDA stopped posting the annual reports, required by the Animal Welfare Act, around the end of 2001. When the USDA failed to provide copies of the reports requested by the Human Society (in the form of Freedom of Information Act requests), the Humane Society filed charges in 2005. Since then, the USDA has been posting...
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The ScientistEditor's note (July 7): This blog has been updated from the previous version to include the full name of The Human Society of the United States.
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