Appeals Court Orders Release Of UW Primate Research Notes

A state appeals court has ordered the release of notes about primate research at U-W Madison. The Fourth District Appellate Court on Thursday reversed a decision from a Dane County judge who said the notes could be withheld because they were for a writer’s personal use. The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed suit in 2013 as part of its opposition to a U-W primate research project in claiming that the monkeys would have “psychological trauma” — and the work was later scrapped as officials denied it was due to the opposition. A university panel released some records but not others, saying the notes did not meet the legal definition of public documents. The appellate court said the notes were to be used in drafting the panel’s meeting minutes — and the court said that if notes are shared with others for communication, or kept for remembering a panel’s activity, they are considered public.