Animals have privacy rights?

[sailor]

The Washington Post

. . . Janet Reno’s policy of accommodation was thrown out the window by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who issued a memo after Sept. 11 telling agencies that if they could scrounge up a reason under the law to deny FOIA requests, he would back them up.

Ashcroft, for example, refuses to release the names of thousands of foreign nationals detained after Sept. 11. Journalists and others want to talk to the detainees to see if they are being held in violation of their civil rights, yet Ashcroft says their names can’t be released to protect their privacy.

So, what else is new? . . . Oh, yes, The Washington Post requested some veterinary records from the National Zoo and. . .

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 mind boggles. I don’t dare ask further about zookeeper-animal relationships lest I be sent to the Gitmo zoo.

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Sooooooo…can I have that possum who keeps going through my garbage arrested for invading my privacy?

[sailor]

Only if you are a personal friend of Mr. Ashcroft

[erislover]

Wha…?