By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
You can hear Wednesday the ginger kitten’s trill when he purrs. You can see tuxedo Kismet’s missing an eye. But for complete information on any pet, you go to their records — whether you’re adopting from a shelter or buying from a store or breeder. Shelter volunteers say families need to know.
“They’re going to be getting puppies that they have no idea what the background is, and then they’re going to end up back in the shelter,” said animal shelter volunteer Carol Rigano.
The best resource for information on animal breeders, wholesalers, labs and even circuses used to be the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website where you could look up inspection reports, licensing status and cruelty citations in a searchable database, but the USDA just disabled that search tool — drawing howls of protest.
“Last week, the Trump administration scrubbed all animal cruelty information from the USDA’s website. Just like that, it was gone. We can no longer see if a breeder has tortured puppies and kittens. No one can tell if the dog or cat they’re getting from a local pet store has been abused,” said Sen. Bob Menendez.
“This move forces nonprofit organizations to file FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests. FOIA requests take more work time, cost more money and it takes days or weeks to get the information,” said Doris Lin, director of legal affairs for the Animal Protection League of New Jersey.
Menendez joined animal rights advocates at the Bergen County Shelter to explain how the data purge also creates a particular problem in New Jersey — one of seven states with a local law prohibiting the purchase of animals from so-called “puppy and kitten mills” cited for violations under the Animal Welfare Act and the Horse Protection Act. The USDA database provided vital information.
“Not having easy access to this information makes it nearly impossible to ensure current local and state laws that prohibit the retail sales of dogs and cats from breeders who have been cited for certain federal violations, and gives the public no way of knowing when they walk into most pet stores — anything about the origins of the pets for sale,” said Best Friends Animal Society Executive Director Elizabeth Jensen.
The USDA claims it’s been planning this for a while. In fact, it tried once before in 2005, but relented after a public outcry. It claims the department’s “…currently involved in litigation concerning, among other issues, information posted on the agency’s website. While the agency is vigorously defending against this litigation, in an abundance of caution, the agency is taking additional measures to protect individual privacy.”
“That’s unacceptable and we can’t stand for it. So today I’m sending a letter to the USDA demanding public access to this critical information be immediately restored,” Menendez said.
The Humane Society says it will challenge the website purge in court. Meanwhile, New Jerseyans have few resources to check for violations among animal breeders and wholesalers.