May 19, 2014

David Karopkin
Via Email dkaropkin@gmail.com

Dear Mr. Karopkin:

This is in response to your August 19, 2013, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request in which you requested the following:

1) any public record, contract, permit, or email from your office
relating to the removal of turkeys from South Beach Psychiatric
Center,
2) any contract with New York State Department of Health or South
Beach Psychiatric Center or USDA Wildlife Services relating to the
removal of turkeys from South Beach Psychiatric Center or at any
other New York State Department of Health facility,
3) any contract with New York State Department of Health or South
Beach Psychiatric Center or USDA Wildlife Services relating to the
removal of geese or any other animals from South Beach Psychiatric
Center or at any other New York State Department of Health facility.

You are asking that all records relating to the above matters from any time, but
specifically relating to the removals of turkeys from the grounds of South Beach
Psychiatric Center during the week of August 12, 2013. Your request was received in
this office on August 19, 2013 and assigned case number 2013-APHIS-04918-F.

Wildlife Services (WS) employees conducted a thorough search of their physical
and electronic files, as well as their email accounts using search terms Staten
Island and turkey. WS forwarded to FOIA 149 pages found within their files.
Of those 149 pages, 42 pages are being provided to you in part under FOIA
Exemption 5, 5 U.S.C. 552 (b)(5) and FOIA Exemptions 6, 5 U.S.C. 552 (b)(6)
and 67 pages are being provided you in full without redactions. In addition, ten
(10) pages are not being provided to you as they are not responsive to your request.

Please note that within the records set there were 30 duplicate pages.

Exemption 5

Exemption 5 permits the Government to withhold inter-agency or intra-agency
memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party in
litigation with the agency. 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(5). The exemption has been
construed by the courts to exempt records that would be subject to evidentiary
privileges available in judicial proceedings. As a threshold matter, the
responsive records must be inter-agency or intra-agency documents in order to
be protected from disclosure under Exemption 5.

An Equal Opportunity Provider and Employer
Animal and Plant
Health Inspection
Service

Marketing and
Regulatory
Programs

Animal and
Plant Health
Inspection
Service

Legislative and
Public Affairs

Freedom of
Information

4700 River Road
Unit 50
Riverdale, MD
20737-1232
David Karopkin 2
2013-APHIS-04918-F

One privilege incorporated into Exemption 5 is the deliberative process
privilege, which protects the quality of agency decision making. To qualify for
protection, the information must be pre-decisional and deliberative. Three policy
purposes constitute the basis for the deliberative process privilege: (1) to
encourage open, frank discussions on matters of policy between subordinates and
supervisors; (2) to protect against premature disclosure of proposed policies
before they are finally adopted; and (3) to protect against public confusion that
might result from disclosure of policies and rationales that do not ultimately
serve as the basis for agency action. Specifically, we have withheld talking
points discussed amongst APHIS employees and draft versions of the USDA-
APHIS-Wildlife Services Categorical Exclusion Record although the final
version is being released to you.

Where possible, the agency has made discretionary releases of information that it
deemed would not cause harm to the agencys decision-making process.

Exemption 6

Exemption 6 permits the government to withhold from personnel and medical files
and similar files information about individuals when the disclosure of such
information would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.
We have determined that these records meet the definition of similar files,
because they contain information pertaining to individuals.

In order to determine whether a document may be withheld under Exemption 6, an
agency must undertake a three-step analysis. First, the agency must determine
whether a significant privacy interest would be compromised by the disclosure of
the record. Second, the agency must determine whether the release of the document
would further the public interest by shedding light on the operations and activities
of the Government. Third, the agency must balance the identified privacy interests
against the public interest in disclosure. In this circumstance, we are withholding
private individual names, titles, phone numbers, email addresses, physical addresses
and signatures.

We have determined that the individuals have more than a de minimis privacy
interest in this information because the identifying information could be used to
make unwanted contact or communications with individuals mentioned in the
documents. In addition, the signatures could be used for identity theft as a person
uses a signature to attest as to who they are in business and personal records. Under
Exemption 6, the only pertinent public interest is whether release of the information
would shed light on the agencys activities and the agencys performance of its
statutory duties. We determined that the release of the identifying information does
not shed any light on APHIS activities. Therefore, the privacy interests of the
individuals in the records you have requested outweigh the non-existent public
interest in disclosure of the information.
David Karopkin 3
2013-APHIS-04918-F

You may appeal our partial denial of the information. If you choose to appeal, your
appeal must be in writing and must be received within 45 days of the date of this
letter to:

Administrator
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Ag Box 3401
Washington, DC 20250-3401

Please refer to 2013-APHIS-04918-F in your appeal letter and add the words
FOIA Appeal to the front of the envelope. To assist the Administrator in
reviewing your appeal, provide specific reasons why you believe modification of
the determination is warranted.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Kacie Edwards of my
staff at Kacie.L.Edwards@aphis.usda.gov.

Sincerely,

Tonya G. Woods
Director
Freedom of Information & Privacy Act
Legislative and Public Affairs

Enclosures