Article Image

IPFS News Link • Animals and Pets

Undercover animal abuse videos could soon be outlawed

• eatocracy.cnn.com

It's a tactic animal rights activists have used for years, going undercover at slaughterhouses and factory farms to document squalid conditions, abuse and neglect. Their videos have gone mainstream and led to criminal charges, fines and even the largest meat recall in American history.

But undercover video is under attack and with it, activists argue, their ability to expose animal abuses that can make meat dangerous to eat.

Increasingly, industries that have been infiltrated and exposed by undercover activists are counterpunching. In state capitols around the country, the agriculture industry is pushing legislation that would essentially outlaw undercover investigations and the videos they produce.

In the past two years, three states have passed so-called "ag-gag" laws while 14 others have considered similar legislation, according to The Humane Society of the United States.