IOWA considering another Ag-Gag Law

​worldanimalnews.com/take-action-now-oppose-ag-gag-law-in-iowa-that-would-criminalize-undercover-investigations-in-slaughterhouses/

Iowa officials are working towards introducing a law that will make it a criminal offence to film atrocities happening on factory farms as an undercover. The law aims to tackle undercover activists who deceive employees for their reasoning for entering the facility and filming things happening that could lead to a loss of business. This is a direct attack on animal activism but also not the first time a similar law was attempted but struck down by the courts as unconstitutional and a breach of freedom of expression.

Obviously, I am against factory farming for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, the mass amount of animals that are raised, confined, and inevitably slaughtered, often living in squalor right up until they are killed. Secondly, there's no denying that factory farming is a leading contributor to greenhouse emissions and their destruction to the environment is well documented. This aside, it strikes me as a blatant admission of guilt and a shifting of blame for the awful things that happen behind closed doors because frankly, if they were monitoring the activities and holding these slaughter houses to an ethical level, they wouldn't be concerned with anyone filming.

Look, we all know what happens in slaughter houses right? But if there's unnecessary suffering of animals on top of this, why wouldn't they want it exposed and dealt with as opposed to trying to prevent anyone from knowing about it? By trying to release this bill, they are not only admitting that these sorts of things are probably happening, but they would rather stop people from finding out as opposed to managing the situation properly. When you have workers kicking and punching piglets, throwing chickens across the room or up against the wall, beating baby cows, these sorts of things should not be happening and why aren't they concerned that they are? Why would they rather stop someone from exposing it as opposed to putting a stop to the gross mistreatment of their animals? It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

These laws are being struck down by the courts because they are not constitutional but also once has to hope that the courts also recognize that these situations are major problems and need to be exposed if they are occurring. Protecting slaughter houses is probably on the agenda of law makers because these states depend on large quantities of meat both for their own people and for shipping off to make money as well, so it's obvious they are concerned with their industries' success and would rather protect them from being exposed. My problem here is that it's beyond shady and demonstrates that Iowa has absolutely no regard for animal welfare and the ethical treatment of their farm animals and sees profits as more important. If they focused on doubling down on these slaughterhouses and putting standards and protocols in place to prevent these sorts of abuses from occurring, they wouldn't have to worry about trying to prevent people from filming, they would instead welcome it!

Iowa, give up on protecting these criminals who are beating and torturing animals who already suffer in this industry and put your money towards ensuring these slaughter houses operate at the highest ethical standards, that's going to be wholly better for business than portraying guilt and trying to cover things up.

HAPPY VEG