Written by Michelle Kretzer
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today vetoed the state's "ag-gag" bill, an attempt by the agriculture industry to prevent American consumers from learning about the cruelty inherent in factory farming. The governor agreed with animal advocates and legal scholars who loudly criticized the bill, acknowledging concerns that it was "constitutionally suspect" and that it "actually makes it more difficult to prosecute animal cruelty cases."
Even when it appeared certain that Haslam would sign the bill into law, animal advocates in Tennessee and across the country refused to back down. Tens of thousands of kind people like you reposted PETA's action alert, spoke out against the bill, and flooded Haslam's e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter accounts with messages urging him to veto it. A long list of celebrities also voiced their opposition, including Emmylou Harris, Carrie Underwood, Wynonna Judd, Miley Cyrus, Tish Cyrus, Ellen DeGeneres, Tony Kanal, CMT President Brian Philips, and Republican strategist Mary Matalin—who also sent lawmakers a video in which she highlights the importance of PETA's undercover work in prosecuting animal abusers.
And we won.
Please take a moment to tweet @BillHaslam and thank him for showing some mercy to animals on factory farms.
Carrie Underwood isn't hiding her disgust about Tennessee's "ag-gag" bill—and and rightfully so. She strongly disagrees with making cruelty investigations on farms illegal and said she may just show up on the governor's doorstep if he signs the bill into law. But state Rep. Andy Holt took it upon himself to insult Carrie for voicing her opinion, saying, "I would say that if Carrie Underwood will stick to singing, I'll stick to lawmaking." That jab didn't sit well with the always-informed Underwood, who tweeted, "I should stick to singing? Wow…sorry, I'm just a tax paying citizen concerned for the safety of my family."
She then tweeted to Ellen DeGeneres, thanking her for discussing "ag-gag" bills on Ellen. And Wynonna Judd, Miley Cyrus, Tish Cyrus, and Tony Kanal all hopped on Twitter, too, to show their support for Carrie and to bash "ag-gag" bills.
Beth Stern, host of the new Nat Geo Wild show Spoiled Rotten Pets and wife of Howard Stern, is piping up, too—about Kim Kardashian's penchant for fur. "It makes me really sad," she said. "I know her sister was a poster child for PETA. I don't watch the Kardashians; I'm very aware of them, but I do know that the sister was involved, so of course that entire family would know what goes on, what happens to animals when they're wearing a fur coat."
To keep up with what all your favorite stars are doing for animals, follow @PETA on Twitter.
Republican Jim Patterson introduced "ag-gag" Assembly Bill 343 to the California Assembly—if passed, the bill would have likely shut down undercover investigations on factory farms. As it turned out, the bill was what got shut down. There was so much opposition to Assembly Bill 343 that Patterson yanked it out of consideration himself after admitting to the Los Angeles Times that he does care about animal treatment. He is now free to consider measures that protect animals from abuse rather than hide it.
Not surprisingly, the bill was sponsored by the California Cattlemen's Association. But the public outcry against the bill was deafening. Legislators were flooded with e-mails from advocates for animals and free speech, and Republican legislators also got hit with a personal appeal that GOP strategist Mary Matalin filmed for PETA and sent to each legislator herself:
Animal advocates are also making great strides in Indiana, where a proposed "ag-gag" bill has had most of the wind sucked out of its sails. After legislators there also heard from Mary Matalin and throngs of disapproving voters, House Speaker Brian Bosma deemed the bill unconstitutional and legislators promptly gutted it, removing penalties for filming or taking photos on farms. Now we need your help to bring about a similar victory in Tennessee, where legislators passed a proposed "ag-gag" bill, which is now heading to Gov. Bill Haslam's desk for his signature. Tennessee Senate Republican Leader Mark Norris and singer Carrie Underwood have both harshly criticized the unconstitutional measure, and they need everyone's help to stop this bill before it becomes law and makes taking pictures or filming on factory farms illegal. No matter what state you live in, please e-mail Haslam and urge him not to sign Senate Bill 1248. You can also send polite tweets to @BillHaslam.
Update: Bob Barker has also written to Indiana legislators urging them to vote no on S.B. 373. The measure already has a strong Democratic opponent in Sen. Mark Stoops, so Barker, a lifelong Republican, hopes to unite lawmakers on both sides of the aisle against this unconstitutional bill.
The following was originally published on March 4, 2013:
Indiana's proposed "ag gag" bill made it through the Senate and has landed in the House. But multiplatinum musician Tony Kanal is calling on the state, where he spent time as a child, to do the right thing and squash this very wrong bill. Indiana Sen. Mark Stoops is joining Tony in speaking out against the bill, having likened it to his trip to Communist-era Romania, in which he was prohibited from taking photos. Says Sen. Stoops, "This is an attack on our 1st Amendment rights and another example of Big Government protecting industry at the expense of the public's welfare."
Like other "ag gag" bills, Indiana's version, Senate Bill (S.B.) 373, would make it illegal for people to film on factory farms. S.B. 373 would allow whistleblowers some protection if they handed over their video to authorities within 48 hours of capturing it. But this is a thinly veiled attempt to garner more support for the bill.
As PETA has witnessed time and again in our undercover investigations, it is crucial that investigators be able to prove that the abuse they documented was pervasive and systematic, rather than an isolated incident, in order to get the abusers convicted. In both our West Virginia Aviagen turkeys and Iowa Hormel supplier pig factory farm cases, investigators reported abuse to their supervisors, who failed to stop the abuse and, in some cases, took part in it themselves. Only with extensive video evidence was PETA able to get the abusers charged and convicted (and the abuse stopped), a point that Tony made in his letter to Speaker of the House Brian Bosma.
If you live in Indiana, please urge your representative to vote "No" on S.B. 373.
Because if factory farms have nothing to hide, why are they pushing so hard to make videotaping illegal?
Written by Jeff Mackey
Update: Another one bites the dust! Because of the public outcry following Bob Barker's letter to lawmakers on PETA's behalf (see below), Wyoming has become the latest state to shelve an "ag gag" bill designed to protect animal abusers on factory farms by preventing undercover investigations from being conducted. The irresponsible and dangerous legislation, House Bill 126, died in committee on February 12. Afterward, one of its cosponsors said that the negative attention surrounding the bill was a factor in setting it aside.
Our thanks go out to everyone who responded to PETA's action alert. Why not celebrate this victory by sending your not-yet-vegan friends a link to Meat.org, where they can view footage obtained—legally—from undercover investigations on factory farms?
Originally posted on February 8th, 2013:
PETA pal and TV legend Bob Barker has once again stepped up for animals—this time in Wyoming, where legislators are considering House Bill (H.B.) 126, a measure specifically designed to protect animal abusers within the intensive-agriculture industry, even from law enforcement.
© StarMaxInc.com
Bob, a lifelong Republican, has urged the Republican-majority Senate to reject the bill, which could prevent undercover investigators from collecting evidence of routine and systematic animal abuse on farms that is crucial in helping prosecute abusers. Undercover investigations by PETA have revealed the routine beatings, mutilations, sexual abuse, and other severe cruelty to animals prevalent within the meat, dairy, and egg industries and often lead to criminal charges and convictions, including in Iowa, North Carolina, Oklahoma and West Virginia.
In his letter, Bob writes, "Americans today want better treatment of animals killed for food, not for their legislators to hide illegal cruelty on farms behind locked doors. Over the last few years, I've been joined by figures from all walks of life, from Republican strategist Mary Matalin to animal welfare expert Temple Grandin, in opposing bills similar to H.B. 126, and legislators have listened, as such bills have died or been tabled by sponsors in Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, and Tennessee as well as Arkansas, the second-largest poultry-producing state in the nation."
What You Can Do
If you are a Wyoming resident or you know some, please urge (or get them to urge) your state senator to join you and Bob Barker in opposing H.B. 126 today!
Residents of Indiana, Nebraska, and New Hampshire can also contact their legislators to urge them to reject similar bills that have arisen in the agriculture industry's desperate attempt to thwart consumers from learning the truth about the gruesome life and miserable death of animals on factory farms.
PETA pal and superhero-for-animals Bob Barker cites PETA's vital work exposing animal mistreatment and neglect on factory farms in his letters urging Missouri state senators to oppose an "ag gag" bill—Senate Bill (S.B.) 695—requiring that abuse documented on farms be reported within 24 hours, effectively preventing investigators and whistleblowers from exposing routine cruelty to animals.
The horrors revealed by PETA's latest factory farm investigation show how important it is that organizations and individuals not lose the ability to uncover cruelty to animals, especially when it's carefully hidden from public view. These sorts of exposés require months of scrutiny to document how the abuse is habitual and systematic, rather than being mere isolated incidents, so the requirements of S.B. 695 would make investigators' work virtually impossible.
As Bob—whose alma mater is Drury University in Springfield, Missouri—stated in his letter to state legislators, "Missouri lawmakers must realize that consumers are demanding better treatment of animals used for food, not for the agriculture industry to cover up illegal acts and penalize those who try to expose routine cruelty. Please show consumers that Missouri has nothing to hide by opposing S.B. 695."
PETA is grateful to celebrities like Bob, Cloris Leachman, and Katherine Heigl for making the public aware of the dangers of "ag gag" legislation because the wealthy industrial-agriculture interests pushing these bills appear to be ensuring that they'll wield influence behind the scenes by making large donations to lawmakers, as seen recently in Iowa and Utah.
If you're a Missouri resident, please join Bob Barker in asking your state senators to vote against this bill and to continue to allow people to expose blatant cruelty to animals.
Last year, PETA helped successfully defeat a series of "ag gag" bills, which would have made it a crime to film cruelty to animals on factory farms, in Florida, Minnesota, and New York. Now, another round of these unconstitutional bills has begun—in Missouri, New York, and Utah—and it's up to us to squelch these measures again.
Time and time again, PETA's undercover investigations of factory farms have produced video evidence of cruelty to animals that has helped authorities prosecute the offenders. Investigators have documented that workers slammed newborn piglets' heads into concrete floors and left them to die in agony, employees at a foie gras farm drowned female hatchlings, and workers at a turkey farm jumped on turkeys' stomachs to make them "pop."
Don't let factory farms hide animal abuse behind shady laws. Here are three ways that you can help animals on factory farms this week:
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Katherine Heigl loves Utah so much that she chose the state as the site of her 2007 wedding and later purchased a home there. But when Utah lawmakers proposed an "ag gag" bill that would make it a crime to shoot video on factory farms, Heigl wanted to let lawmakers know that kind citizens like her would not support it.
She penned a letter on PETA's behalf to Utah's state senators urging them to squelch House Bill (H.B.) 187 and allow people to continue to obtain video evidence of animal abuse so that authorities can prosecute the offenders.
As animals cannot defend themselves, the public must maintain its right to document illegal cruel practices in order to alert law enforcement to [their] existence. In 2008, my friends at PETA went undercover at a major pig farm in Iowa that supplies Hormel and found that workers were beating pigs with metal rods and jabbing clothespins into their eyes; one employee was even caught sexually abusing a pig with a cane. Because of this investigation, six workers were charged with a total of 22 counts of livestock neglect and abuse, and all of them admitted guilt. PETA worked hand in hand with local law enforcement to achieve these convictions, for which the undercover footage made the sheriff's job much easier. Please don't impede law enforcement by passing this terrible bill.
Cloris Leachman has already asked Utah lawmakers to dump the bill, which is on very shaky constitutional ground. Last year, when similar "ag gag" bills cropped up in Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, and New York, animal advocates defeated them, thanks in part to the work of kind folks like Cloris and Mary Matalin.
Help us defeat H.B. 187 in Utah too.
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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