Louisiana Supreme Court says LSU has to give PETA songbird health records
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Friday, June 28, that LSU must turn over songbird research records that an animal rights group has been trying to get from the university since May 2019.
According to court documents, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued LSU in December 2020 after the school did not release documents related to several public records requests.
LSU said on multiple occasions that it had no pertinent records tied to the requests or that the records PETA asked for were not covered by the state’s public records law.
In January 2022, a district court ruled in favor of PETA and granted the group access to all the records it requested. LSU appealed.
LSU court-ordered to pay $73K to PETA, LSU appeals decision
In September 2023, the court of appeals agreed with the district court and decided that the veterinary care records were public “within the meaning of the Public Records Law,” court documents said.
LSU then appealed to the Supreme Court. It took up the case and granted the writ on Jan. 24.
On Friday, the justices said that LSU “failed to meet its burden of proving the records were properly withheld” and affirmed the lower court’s ruling that the university had to turn over records and videos.
“PETA is elated that the Louisiana Supreme Court is requiring that LSU abide by the law—and that the school must finally release video footage and documents detailing its cruel and deadly experiments on songbirds,” said PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo. “These birds were trapped in their own homes, caged, tormented and killed at a public university that can’t operate in secrecy, hiding atrocities masquerading as ‘science.'”
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