July 25, 2016 – Florida Politics
by Jim Rosica
A judge has allowed People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) to intervene in a public records lawsuit involving an animal research lab.
Circuit Judge Terry Lewis of Tallahassee issued his order in the case Friday.
“…PETA shall be considered for all purposes a party defendant in this action, and all pleadings and papers shall be served upon PETA’s counsel of record,” the order says.
The group’s public records request “triggered” the suit, court records show. Primate Products, Inc. wants a court order to prevent the state’s Department of Agriculture from releasing records it says contain “trade secrets.”
…the company has said the paperwork had “customer and supplier information,” and since the “primate supply business is very competitive, with only a handful of companies in the market, and disclosure of such information to (our) competitors would cause harm to (our) business.”
Primate Products breeds and sells “nonhuman primates for use in biomedical research,” the suit says.
Its Hendry County facility came under fire last year after undercover animal-rights activists filmed “thin, wounded monkeys and workers manhandling them,” according to a Fort Myers News-Press story. [READ MORE]