Animal House

The Washington Post this morning gave front page coverage to the rotten medical care given animals at the National Zoo, which resulted in at least five needless deaths in the past several years. It's too bad the paper couldn't find room in its pages to cover a report issued yesterday that documented the systematic political abuse of federal government scientists who care about animals.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Union of Concerned Scientists recently sent surveys to the 460 scientists who work at the National Oceanographic and Atmosphere Administration. More than half the 124 respondents (53 percent) were personally aware of situations where “commercial interests have inappropriately induced the reversal or withdrawal of scientific conclusions or decisions through political intervention.”

In addition, more than a third of respondents with direct responsibility for the nation's fisheries have “been directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making findings that are protective” of marine life with nearly a fourth reporting that they have been “directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a NOAA Fisheries scientific document.”

Last week, Sen. Larry E. Craig showed just how far some politicians will go to shut up government scientists bearing unwelcome news. The Idaho Republican inserted a rider in the energy bill that would close the Fish Passage Center, which since 1980 has been documenting the damage done to salmon and other fish populations by the Bonneville Power Administration's Columbia River dam system in the Pacific Northwest. The special interests behind Craig include local farmers (irrigation), shippers and industrial, commercial and residential users of the BPA's cheap power.

Michele DeHart, manager of the Center, was courageous enough to speak out about the attempt to silence her agency. "Maybe this is one of those deals where when you don't like the message, you kill the messenger," she told the Post.

The survey's results can be found here.