‘PETA v. NIMH’ Case Summary
Case Name: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al.
Index Number: 1:21-cv-01241
Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
In May 2021, PETA filed suit against the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) and its parent agencies, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), due to their failure to respond to seven distinct requests for information that we placed with the defendants pursuant to the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
We sought information regarding the treatment of nonhuman primates and other animals in experiments funded or overseen by the defendants, filing requests with them at various points between January 28, 2020, and October 1, 2020. Even though FOIA requires that a final response to requests made pursuant to that law be issued within 20 working days, months went by without a response to our requests, so we sued.
After filing suit, we negotiated a schedule pursuant to which the defendants would produce documents and information in response to our FOIA requests, which they are currently doing monthly in reply to the last remaining unanswered request.
