Friday Night Soother
by digby
I'm reprising this even though I accidentally posted it too soon yesterday... doh. Animal welfare is an issue that's important to me and the fact that these insane Trumpites are even so cruel that they are evidently planning to roll back protection regulations is enough to make me sick.
But first, a river otter in the snow, to make you smile:
And now a little animal welfare politics. Because it's important:
Ever since animal welfare reports — which have been easily available to the public for a decade — were suddenly scrubbed from a government website last Friday, people who love animals have been speaking out.
The reports, which were housed on the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) site, included details about animal abuse and suffering at puppy mills, circuses, zoos, laboratories, farms and even SeaWorld. Since they were removed, it's become much harder for the public to be informed about which facilities are good and which are bad for animals.
"All information was removed today. This includes inspection reports for breeders, exhibitors and research facilities," Tanya Espinosa, public affairs specialist for legislative and public affairs at USDA-APHIS, told The Dodo on Friday.
The unofficial Twitter account for the USDA — one of many alternative accounts that arose after the federal government started restricting what information government agencies could tell the public — encouraged people on Thursday to speak up for the sake of transparency, using adorable photos of their pets.
Meanwhile, as concerned citizens are speaking out, animal welfare organizations are making plans to take legal action against the USDA to make the information freely available again.
"This appears to be a situation of agency capture with the USDA cowering to special interests to the detriment of transparency and animal welfare," Nancy Perry, senior vice president of government relations for the ASPCA, told The Dodo. "This is public information and subject to FOIA, so it's dumbfounding that the USDA would take action to make this information more difficult to access. We are deeply concerned this is an effort to protect those who are doing harm to animals."
More here.
Do we have to fight these people on absolutely everything?
I mean, even Hitler liked animals.
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