Paxton’s office let Texas A&M keep secret the care records of hundreds of dogs and cats used in lab testing
In 2015, Paxton’s first year in office, his office issued an opinion letting Texas A&M withhold daily care logs and health records on dogs and cats used in research. The university had reported using 428 dogs and 15 cats in 2014, and federal records showed most tests on dogs in an earlier year caused “pain or distress.” Open-records experts called the reasoning, that the animals were owed veterinarian-patient confidentiality, a “terrible precedent.”
What happened
In 2015, animal-welfare advocates filed public-records requests with Texas A&M for daily care logs and health records of dogs and cats used in university research. At least 40 people requested the records. 01
Paxton’s office issued an opinion allowing the university to withhold them under veterinarian-patient confidentiality, reasoning that “a veterinarian may not violate the confidential relationship between the veterinarian and the veterinarian’s client.” 01
Texas A&M reported using 428 dogs and 15 cats in research in 2014. U.S. Department of Agriculture records showed the university reported in 2009 that three-fourths of tests on 82 dogs produced some “pain or distress.” 01
A Houston open-records lawyer said the confidentiality rule should not apply to animals the university owns: “Obviously you do not owe any confidentiality to an animal. Only a human can be promised confidentiality.” 01 When the issue resurfaced in 2026, Paxton’s campaign did not respond to questions. 02
Why it matters
Texas A&M is a public university. Paxton’s office stretched a privacy rule meant for pet owners to keep the public from seeing how animals were treated in taxpayer-funded labs, a precedent advocates warned other universities could follow. 01
Timeline
- Paxton’s office lets Texas A&M keep secret the care records of dogs and cats used in lab testing
- Paxton’s campaign won’t answer questions about the lab-animal records
What the sources show
The opinion’s reasoning and the animal counts are documented in Houston Chronicle reporting on the records requests and federal filings. 01
Paxton’s response
His campaign did not respond to questions about the records. 02
Sources
- 01A&M refuses to share records for animals in lab testingHouston Chronicle · July 19, 2015
- 02Paxton’s denial of public records to animal rights groups comes back to biteSan Antonio Current · Aug. 20, 2026
Updates and corrections
- Case file published.