UPDATE: Animal Partisan lawsuit exposes FBI plans to use federal weapons of mass destruction laws against activists
CURRENT STATUS: (Active) The FBI released all requested records after our lawsuit; case remains open to resolve issues related to attorneys fees.
August 1, 2024
Animal Partisan has recently obtained records that show Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ties to the animal agriculture industry and strategies to target animal activists using Weapons of Mass Destruction statutes.
In October 2022, Animal Partisan made a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), seeking records detailing ties between the agency and the animal agriculture industry. Specifically, Animal Partisan’s request sought records of a presentation the FBI gave to a conference held by the North American Meat Institute (NAMI), one of the nation’s largest animal agriculture associations. The FBI first claimed no such records existed and then later claimed they were exempt from disclosure under FOIA.
In July 2023, with the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic (FAAC) and Sorenson Law LLC acting as counsel, Animal Partisan sued the FBI in federal court to obtain release of the records at issue. On June 25, 2024, the FBI released the records—records that it had been unlawfully withholding for nearly two years.
“While the FBI has a decades-long history of targeting animal rights activists, these records demonstrate a potentially dangerous escalation in the agency’s tactics,” said Will Lowrey, legal counsel at Animal Partisan. “The records shine a troubling light on collaborations between federal law enforcement and the animal agriculture industry to explore ways to bring some of the most severe federal criminal laws to bear against animal rights activists.”
The records reveal that NAMI contacted the FBI and requested its participation in the 2020 “Animal Care and Handling Conference.” The FBI agreed to participate and provide insight into “agroterrorism and federal law enforcement’s approach to protecting the United States meat industry.” The FBI then prepared a presentation detailing “WMD [weapons of mass destruction] and domestic terrorism” content for the conference. The FBI’s presentation highlighted two of the agency’s programs, including its Weapons of Mass Destruction Program and its Domestic Terrorism Program, focusing specifically on “animal rights violent extremism.” The FBI discussed several federal criminal statutes that could presumably be used to target animal rights activists, including: (1) Use of weapons of mass destruction, (2) Prohibitions with respect to biological weapons, (3) Tampering with consumer products, and (4) Distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction. Some of these statutes carry penalties of up to life in prison.
“These records suggest the FBI may be exploring whether it can blame animal rights activists for future disease outbreaks at factory farms and bring charges for use of ‘biological weapons,’” said Laura Fox, director of the Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic. “In an environment where infectious diseases such as avian influenza are running rampant through animal agriculture due to intense confinement conditions, the FBI’s presentation signals an ominous new stage in the agency’s efforts to stifle dissent critical of animal agriculture.”
November 29, 2023
As previously reported, with the help of Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic and Sorenson Law LLC, Animal Partisan sued the FBI over its refusal to release records responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request submitted by Animal Partisan. This case, which was the subject of a recent Animal Law Podcast, sought to uncover documents concerning the FBI's involvement at two significant trade industry conferences put on by the North American Meat Institute (NAMI). Initially, the FBI asserted that the records Animal Partisan sought were exempt from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 7A, an exemption often invoked to protect law enforcement records from disclosure.
This week, in a complete reversal, the FBI declared that it no longer considers FOIA Exemption 7A applicable to the records originally requested by Animal Partisan and that it will soon begin to release the records. This reversal signals the forthcoming release of records likely to cast a revealing light on the FBI’s interactions with key players in the meat industry. Read Vermont Law and Graduate School’s full blog HERE for more details.
July 11, 2023
Animal Partisan has filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The lawsuit alleges that the FBI improperly withheld records detailing its involvement with the animal agriculture industry. Animal Partisan is represented in the suit by the Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School and the Sorenson Law Office.
Animal Partisan’s lawsuit stems from a FOIA request seeking records related to the FBI’s participation in multiple animal agriculture industry conferences held by the North American Meat Institute (NAMI). NAMI touts itself as “the oldest and largest trade association representing U.S. packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal and turkey” and claims to represent companies that produce 95% meat in the United States. The organization’s annual “Animal Care and Handling Conference” attracts notable meat industry resources, including Temple Grandin, executives from multi-national meat corporations, the American Veterinary Medical Association, the National Pork Board, and representatives from major agricultural universities. The conference claims to offer “valuable insights” and “key strategies” for “continuous improvement in animal care.”
But Animal Partisan believes that the FBI has used the conference as a vehicle to target animal rights activists and presumably to discuss and share new strategies to undermine those who spotlight the abuse and misconduct prevalent in industrial animal agriculture.
The FBI first claimed that the requested records did not exist, but after Animal Partisan pushed back, the agency denied the request, claiming that the documents were privileged under FOIA and exempt from disclosure as they were “records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes”, the release of which “could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
Animal Partisan’s lawsuit, filed in the District Court for the District of Columbia, alleges that the FBI violated FOIA by withholding the records and asks the court to order the FBI to produce the records and pay attorney’s fees and costs.
This case highlights only the latest in the FBI’s long history of attempting to stifle animal rights activism and perpetuate the status quo of industrial animal agriculture. In an appearance before the Senate in 2005, the FBI declared that “animal rights extremism” was “one of the FBI’s highest domestic terrorism priorities.” In 2017, the FBI expended considerable resources—including as many as eight FBI special agents—conducting raids on multiple small animal sanctuaries searching for piglets taken from a Smithfield-owned factory farm in Utah by Direct Action Everywhere. A 2019 internal FBI memo alleges that animal rights activists have increased the spread of viral pathogens in factory farms. The FBI’s interest in animal rights activists is regularly on display as documented visits to the homes of animal rights activists and attempts to elicit information regarding the movement.
FOIA exists to promote transparency into the workings of the federal government. No government agency, including the FBI, is above the law and Animal Partisan’s lawsuit seeks to hold the agency accountable.
View a copy of the complaint HERE.
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