US Federal Government Data Being Removed - Help Protect It!

By Michael Johnston, Andie Thompkins @ 2025-02-07T20:35 (+2)

Hi!

If you use US Federal Gov data, tell us or maybe lose it.

Mercy For Animals has launched an initiative to save data from US government websites that is at risk of being removed under the current administration.  While we do not know for sure what will be removed under the new administration, data loss is an imminent risk.

This administration took down useful data for the animals 8 years ago and some of those animals are now invisible.  Webpages and data sets are now actively being removed adjacent to data we know we need.  We recognize that this level of urgency requires bandwidth and resources that many organizations may not have available and we’re here to help!

If you use, have used, or may use any data sets from US government (.gov) websites (e.g. USDA, CDC, EPA, NIH) we ask that you please submit links to these sources as soon as possible so that we can pull and archive the data for future use by the movement.

We've established a workflow to immediately capture high-priority and/or quickly accessible data, capture and organize large/fractured data sets, engage with external advisors and activists to ensure coverage, and organize data for long-term use by the movement.  However, while this effort should go deep and get us reliable evidence or citations, do not let this stop you from downloading any mission critical data yourself, today.  Our effort will prioritize critical sources for farmed animal advocates.

We'll share more information about requesting and accessing the archived data in the future.  For now, we're focused on preserving data and we're grateful for your help in covering the sources!

Please reach out to us with any questions.  And if you’re working on a similar initiative, or would like to get involved, please reach out to Michael Johnston at michael.johnston@mercyforanimals.org - we’d love to chat!

P.S. Thank to our volunteers, partners and advisers across the movement helping out!