FC: National Zoo cites animal "privacy rights," refuses to release info

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Mon May 06 2002 - 14:52:41 PDT

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    Next up: Irate privacy activists, upset at the practice of implanting
    ID chips into pets to identify them if lost, sue vets to stop the
    practice, citing Fluffy's "right to be let alone" and complaining
    that, Revelations' "Mark of the Beast" is now being taken literally...
    
    -Declan
    
    ---
    
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37589-2002May5.html
    
       National Zoo Cites Privacy Concerns in Its Refusal to Release Animal's
    
       By James V. Grimaldi
       Washington Post Staff Writer
       Monday, May 6, 2002; Page E12
       
       Thousands of people have peered in on the National Zoo's PandaCam to
       see Tian Tian and Mei Xiang cavorting. They have surfed to the zoo Web
       site's ElephantCam to watch the most intimate moments between Shanti
       and the pachyderm's newborn calf. And they have tuned into the Naked
       Mole-Rat Cam to follow the subterranean rodent's tubular meanderings.
       
       But don't ask to see their medical records. You won't get them.
       
       The Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo has taken the position that
       viewing animal medical records would violate the animal's right to
       privacy and be an intrusion into the zookeeper-animal relationship.
       
       The notion that animals have a right to privacy is, from a legal
       standpoint, odd, because courts have long held that they don't.
       
       This all comes by way of a request for said information from
       Washington Post staff writer D'Vera Cohn, who recently asked the the
       National Zoo for animal medical records and necropsy and pathology
       reports from one of Washington's most renowned institutions after the
       death of Ryma, a beloved giraffe.
       
       The reply came in an e-mail letter from Zoo Director Lucy Spelman. The
       answer was no, The Post cannot see animal medical records, only
       "detailed summaries prepared by the individual generating those
       records or reports." The reason: Releasing medical records would
       violate the animals' privacy rights.
    
       [...]
    
    
    
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