I received an email this morning from PETA. They are again combating a law that would prevent people from filming or photographing the interior of factory farms. It is too dangerous for these farms you see, rather than treat their animals humanely they would prefer to keep whistle blowers and their cameras out. Is humane treatment of farm animals too much to ask for? Apparently it is— so much to ask for in fact that these farmers are actually wasting the people of Iowa as well as their law makers time and money with attempts to legally ban these defenders of these abused farm animals. Wouldn’t it be much easier to comply with the fair treatment and regulations created for these poor animals who already have a one way ticket to having their throats slit at the slaughterhouse? I’ve posted the contents of the email below and already contacted the governor to urge him not to enact this absurdity into law. I hope you will sign too. Shame on these farmers!
“We urgently need your help to stop House File (H.F.) 589, which has just passed in the Iowa legislature and has reached the governor’s desk, from being signed into law. If signed, the measure would in effect prevent citizens from photographing or filming a farm without the farmer’s consent and could stop vital undercover work that exposes routine abuse of animals in the factory-farming industry. This absurd bill is a fast and sly rewrite of a bill that was the subject of massive public outcry because it would have criminalized filming without a farmer’s consent outright, and it is no more than a desperate attempt by agriculture industry giants to prevent consumers from learning the truth about the lives and deaths of animals on factory farms.