RHD In The US - First Freedom of Information Request

Our First Freedom of Information Act

The Following Email Was sent out to the list on December 6, 2001

We failed to get the mountain to come to us. Therefore we have gone to the mountain. The RHD in the US Coalition sent in our first request for information through the Freedom of Information Act yesterday. The request can be seen...

December 5, 2001
Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service
Kim Pacheco
Assistant Director/FOIA Officer
Riverside, MD 20737-1232
Sent via fax to (301) 734-5941

Dear Ms. Pacheco,

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552.

I request that a copy of the documents containing the following information be provided to me:

Preliminary investigation reports outlining planning of procedures, actions to be taken, and/or strategies for investigation of the outbreaks of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease, also known as RCD, RHD, VHD, Rabbit Calici Disease, the reported outbreak in the state of Georgia in, or about, November of 1999 and the officially reported outbreak in Iowa in the year 2000 and Utah in the year 2001.

Field notes, interim reports, final reports, inter office memos, administrative directives, investigator’s memos, letters reports and memos received from officials from state governments participating in the investigation, laboratory reports from both USDA laboratories and laboratories participating in the investigation that are not part of the USDA, lab notes from all federal laboratories involved in the investigation, Veterinarian reports from Veterinarians outside of APHIS and/or other U.S. federal government agencies who participated in the investigation and reported to APHIS, pertaining to the three incidents outlined above.

Receipts for expenses, purchase orders, phone and other bills received, that were received or incurred in regards to the three incidents outlined above.

Notes, memos, reports, and outlines regarding and/or derived from the conference call with Rabbit Industry/Groups/Community members and investigation team on May 11, 2001. In addition, in relationship to that call, any documents prepared prior to the event to prepare APHIS, and any other USDA employees participating, for the event.

Drafts, outlines, directives, reports and or memos regarding the preparation of any statements released to the general public regarding the three incidents outlined above and the decision made to use the name RCD as opposed to the name RHD or VHD.

Letters written to, or notes regarding conversations, or emails sent or received from Rabbit Industry, Rabbit Interest or Rabbit Community groups and or individuals associated with the same.

We are willing to receive any of the documents available in electronic format via email or disk to save the expense of copying/printing such items.

I am aware that I am entitled to make this request under the Freedom of Information Act, and if your agency response is not satisfactory, I am prepared to make an administrative appeal. Please indicate to me the name of the official to whom such an appeal should be addressed.

I am aware that if my request is denied I am entitled to know the grounds for this denial.

I am aware that while the law allows your agency to withhold specified categories of exempted information, you are required by law to release any segregable portions that are left after the exempted material has been deleted from the data I am seeking.

In order to help determine my status to assess fees, you should know that I am a representative of a public interest organization that publishes or disseminates information and this request is made as part of news-gathering and not for a commercial use.

I request a waiver of all fees for this request. Disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the government, and is not primarily in my commercial interest, nor a business trying to get information on industrial competitors.

Thank you for your attention to these matters.

Sincerely,

diane of The Sanctuary

Co-Founder, RHD in the US Coalition

" I am the voice of the voiceless;
Through me the dumb shall speak, Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
The wrongs of the wordless weak.
And I am my brother's keeper;
And I will fight his fight;
And speak the word for the beast and bird
Till the world sets things right."

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox, 1850-1919

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