There have been countless stories reporting what government websites have been removing and censoring since President Trump has been sworn in last month. One of the more disturbing stories yet is that the USDA has been censoring reports of animal welfare violations.
On February 3rd at 11 a.m., any information that was pertaining to inspection reports of animal welfare incidents were gone from the USDA website. A spokesperson for the USDA, Tanya Espinosa, would neither confirm or deny whether this was a permanent or temporary decision.
When a search is done on the website for the reports, the records were either removed completely or replaced with a message which stated that they are remaining transparent yet trying to respect the privacy of individuals.
For many advocacy workers, the thought that President Trump’s administration is on a quest to protect the rights and privacy of animal abusers is very alarming to say the least.
John Goodwin is the director for a campaign to stop puppy mills and works for the United States Humane Society. He feels that the USDA is giving cover to individuals who harm or neglect animals and have subsequently been sited by inspectors of the USDA. The public will no longer be able to access records to find which horse trainers, dog breeders, zoos and research labs have a bad track record for harming or neglecting animals.