Dr. Shana Madela, the USDA Veterinary Medical Officer (VMO) for Great Eastern University, was quite unhappy with what she saw. Six months earlier, she had cited the university for inadequate husbandry in the school's rhesus monkey colony and had given the school six months to remedy the problem. Now, on a return visit, it appeared to her that little had been done. Dr. Tom Swarovsky, the attending veterinarian, was equally dismayed, but for a different reason. Madela photographed what she considered to be evidence of the poor husbandry. She then asked Swarovsky for copies of the husbandry records for the monkeys covering the past six months and indicated that she would be taking the photographs and copies of the records back to her supervisor for further review. Swarovsky tried to downplay the importance of what Madela alleged and argued that monkeys are messy animals and that Madela had arrived just before the cages were due to be cleaned. Madela was firm in her position, noting that caked-on fecal material and mold growth in the corners of the cages do not happen overnight.
Swarovsky, sensing problems for himself and the school, made a quick phone call to the university's legal counsel. He told the attorney that he believed the inspector was misinterpreting the regulations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), because it did not state that an inspector could remove records or pictures from the premises. The attorney had a brief conversation with Madela, in which she quoted the two sections of the regulations (§2.35 and §2.38) that she claimed gave her the authority to take records and photographs back to her main office. She politely said, “There would be no need to make copies of records or take photographs if they weren't intended to be taken off the premises.” The attorney countered (to no avail) that the regulations simply said that copies and photographs could be taken to another area of the animal facility or building for further review but did not suggest that this documentation could be removed from the premises. When he asked about the availability of the records and pictures to others through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), he was told that they would be handled in accordance with the applicable sections of that Act.
Do you think the USDA VMO was correct in claiming that she could remove photographs and copies of records from the Great Eastern animal facility and take them to her office? If they could be removed, would they be available to others through FOIA?
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Silverman, J. Noncompliance, documentation and FOIA. Lab Anim 36, 13 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0907-13a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/laban0907-13a
