Weaponizing Transparency
Episode description
On occasion, laws and regulations enacted for common sense reasons have purposefully been misapplied by those with agendas and intentions that are radically different from what Congress or state legislatures had in mind. It is difficult to anticipate such unintended consequences in new laws, especially when stakeholders that may be affected by such legislation are excluded from the bill writing and amendment process. Animal related organizations such as zoos and aquariums seem particularly and increasingly prone to this trend thanks to animal rights groups as in the current case of HR 1042 known as the "Prepared Act." It's an otherwise common sense idea that the thousands of USDA licensed facilities including zoos, aquariums, research, and breeding facilities ought to have disaster preparedness plans in place in the event of natural or other catastrophic events. However, backers of the bill seem to have an insidious goal in mind, to use HR 1042 to gain access to an organization's private operational and emergency contingency plans through the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA. Julia Matson Wagner, a risk mitigation expert, discusses the bill and why it might make zoos and aquariums vulnerable as soft targets to much more dangerous elements than simply animal rights groups.
In an all new Zoos News elephant expert, Erin Ivory, returns to Zoo Logic to discuss EEHV, a devastating and almost always lethal virus that has just claimed two young elephants at the Indianapolis zoo.
Plus an all new That Sounds Wild.
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