WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- The U.S. department of agriculture pressures veterinarians to falsify official documents, a veterinarian and an attorney for federal veterinarians told UPI.
"They have suspended one veterinarian and have pressured others when they balked at signing certificates that were not truthful," said Bill Hughes, an attorney for the National Association of Federal Veterinarians in Washington, D.C., a group that represents USDA veterinarians.
The veterinarian, a current USDA employee, was reprimanded when he refused to sign an export certificate he thought was false. Export certificates declare a food item meets the safety inspection requirements of foreign countries.
The veterinarian, who requested anonymity because he feared repercussion from the agency for speaking out, said foreign nations should not trust U.S. export certificates because a lot of USDA veterinarians are forced into signing them.
USDA spokesman Steven Cohen said the agency was not aware of any trouble with its export certification process and "would launch an investigation if anybody had any information that veterinarians were pressured to sign export certificates."
