New South Wales Government Ag-Gag Laws Being Challenged

​worldanimalnews.com/nsw-government-challenged-in-court-by-farm-transparency-project-over-surveillance-privacy-laws-limiting-awareness-of-animal-cruelty-in-slaughterhouses/

Australia's ag-gag laws are being challenged in court by reputable animal protection organization, Farm Transparency Project. The case aims to tackle the Surveillance Devices Act 2007, a law put into place to penalize activists who record and share evidence of animal abuse in New South Wales abattoirs, slaughterhouses, and farms. The laws heavily protect the meat industry and can slap fines and jail sentences of up to 5 years on activists who blow the whistle on documented instances of animal cruelty.

The law was not originally intended to be weaponized to this extent, but in 2015, police used the law to slap charges on Farm Transparency project's Executive Director, Chris Delforce, after footage depicting blatant cruelty on various pig farms across NSW was published. 

Ag-gag laws are designed to protect the animal agriculture industry by penalizing those who expose abuse or cruelty. They make it illegal to document or share animal cruelty happening behind closed doors in order to protect the money-making animal agriculture industry. Exposing the industry for being inherently cruel and perhaps engaging in various forms of recognized animal abuse would be bad for the industry and result in a loss of profits. The more people who know the horrors happening behind slaughterhouse walls will lead to more people perhaps turning their backs on meat or dairy, again, affecting profits for the animal-ag industry. These laws ensure the public remains blissfully unaware of the extracurricular abuse happening in slaughterhouses across the nation.

In my opinion, Ag-Gag laws are nothing short of an admission of guilt and a blatantly obvious attempt at preventing abuse from being exposed. Typically, when an industry would rather penalize you for exposing abuse than deal with and address these instances of animal abuse, there could be no bigger admission of guilt. What this tells us is that the animal-ag industry is tainted with cruelty and abuse above and beyond the traditional day in / day out workings of a slaughterhouse. We're talking about animals being kicked or punched, thrown, beaten, hit with weapons, strangled, mutilated, stepped on, or injured and left to die; none of which is standard protocol. 

Ag-gag laws want us all to believe that animals are treated fairly and live the happiest of lives leading up to their incredibly peaceful slaughter. Unfortunately, this is often so far removed from the truth and undercover investigations of slaughterhouses across the globe depict various instances of animal cruelty & abuse. By preventing the media or undercover investigations from reporting on animal abuse, the government is essentially condoning the abuse and cruelty and these laws aim to prevent us from knowing the true horrors of this undeniably cruel industry.

Ag-gag laws are an admission of guilt. They are a way of shifting blame and allowing the abuse and cruelty to continue without affecting profits or allowing the public to make their own choices based on the information provided to them. What we need is more monitoring of these industries. We need transparency, proof that these industries are complying with animal welfare standards and not allowing unnecessary animal abuse. Ag-gag laws are disgusting and in fact, condone animal cruelty. It's time to reverse ag-gag laws and instead, address the shortcomings of an industry that capitalizes on abuse and death.

HAPPY VEG