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Animal rights group sues Texas A&M over public
records issue
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Thursday, Aug. 20, 2015 By Asher
Price - American-Statesman Staff
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A California-based animal rights group has filed
suit against Texas A&M after the university, with the support of the state
attorney general, refused to release information about dogs it uses for
research. The Beagle Freedom Project claims in a lawsuit
filed Wednesday in Brazos County district court that Texas A&M violated the
state Public Information Act by refusing to turn over documents concerning the
health and treatment of dogs used in experiments.Texas
A&M has argued that records about dogs it uses for research should be kept
confidential because of veterinarian-client privilege.. The suit speculates that the university didn’t
release requested information “to shield itself from public scrutiny over the
types of taxpayer funded testing it is conducting on these animals.” University officials declined to comment, but
the suit says the university cited veterinarian-client privilege as its reason
for declining to release information. The state attorney general’s office sided with
the school, approving the veterinarian-client privilege claim
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A list of research animals kept by Texas A&M University.
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Texas
A&M has argued that other records about animals it uses are protected by doctor-client privilege. The suit says that was wrong, arguing that
exemption to the Public Information Act was intended for family pets, not
research animals purchased with taxpayer funds and owned by schools. The Beagle Freedom Project, also known as Animal
Rescue, Media and Education, says its primary purpose is “rehoming animals from
research laboratories.” The organization’s “identity campaign” aims to
“identify adoptable animals by using public record requests to find information
about specific animals being held in taxpayer funded labs.” The campaign targets 17 universities, some of
which have turned over requested information, said Jeremy Beckham, a research
specialist with the organization. The group originally asked Texas A&M for a
census of dogs and cats it houses in its labs and received a list, with names
and birth dates, of 123 dogs and 13 cats. Supporters of the group, including a resident of
Texas, filed further requests about medical, photographic and video records of
two of the dogs — a 4½-year-old hound named Buster and a nearly
9-month-old golden retriever named Chimy — at
Texas A&M in mid-April. The university declined to release the
information, saying the records related to university-owned animals’ health
care by veterinarians of the university’s College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. It said the records were covered by state law protecting
veterinarian-client privilege. The attorney general’s office agreed, backing up
the university’s interpretation of state law. In its suit, the Beagle Freedom Project says the
privilege shouldn’t apply because its request was made to the university that
owns the animals, and not the veterinarians who handle them. “The legislative intent underlying this
exception was to protect private individuals from the risk that their
veterinarian would release their animal’s private information without their
consent,” reads the suit. “This exception was never meant to apply to animals
being experimented on by a taxpayer funded state institution of higher public
education.”