In a time of tight federal budgets and concerns by taxpayers about wasteful government, there should also be concern about outside groups who force –or attempt to force–federal agencies to waste precious dollars and disclose very private individual information. Two such groups are the Humane Society of the U.S. and PETA.
According to December 2010 information request records of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the HSUS and PETA filed for information a dozen times and accounted for 26% of the month’s request logs. The vast information sought by these animal rights groups, however, is more revealing. Joining in the requests—which consume large amounts of federal manpower and tax dollars—was the Animal Welfare Institute, another Washington, D.C. group that opposes trapping, hunting, farming and animal research.
These animal rights organizations requested information under the Freedom of Information Act, and as the facts reveal, those requests were not a mere search for a few dates or names and numbers.
The Humane Society of the U.S. actually sought information on numerous privately-owned kennels. PETA, however, sought information on a wide assortment of groups, to include: Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circuses, another circus, several education centers, and a pawnshop. Additionally, PETA sought the USDA to release information on the travel itineraries of several individuals. Requests such as these should send up a red flag in any normal circle.
As in past requests for information, the USDA has informed these radical groups that some of the requested information is very personal in nature—and thus it will not be provided. A November 23, 2010 memo from USDA to HSUS Kathleen Conlee, Director of HSUS Program Management, Animal Research Issues, noted that “information which if released would cause a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” The letter also states some of the sought information, such as requests for commercial or financial information, was safeguarded as privileged or confidential information. The USDA office did provide 32 pages of information to HSUS.
There was no disclosure on how much these requests cost U.S. taxpayers. There was also no indication of what the HSUS, PETA and other groups were using the specific information for, but past practices have included filing lawsuits and injecting data into controversial undercover programs.