Ag-Gag Laws and Factory Farm Investigations Mapped: 2011

The map below identifies factory farms that animal advocacy groups have exposed through undercover investigations. Viewed individually the results of these exposés might be dismissed as isolated incidents. Taken together, however, they reveal a pattern of disregard for animal welfare and routine illegal acts of cruelty-to-animals throughout animal agriculture. They also reveal that many legal, standard agricultural procedures are unconscionably cruel, and that new laws are needed in order to regulate animal agribusiness. There are currently no federal laws protecting animals on farms.

The management of the agribusinesses depicted in these investigations is responsible for the incidents and practices exposed by the investigations, even though the blame is routinely placed on low-level employees. Instead of dedicating themselves to eliminating the practices depicted in the videos, the industry’s response has invariably been to defend the practices exposed and to deny any wrongdoing while vilifying the messenger.

Now, agribusinesses are working to hide their abusive activities from the public and from the media. Legislation has been drafted in three states that would make these types of exposés illegal: Florida, Iowa, and Minnesota. If passed, these laws would impose criminal penalties for creating audio or visual recordings of agriculture operations. Criminal penalties could also be imposed for any media or press organization transmitting any recordings that are made.

These laws may be found to be unconstitutional, but whether they pass or not, they reveal that animal agribusiness and factory farms have no intention of ending abusive practices that the majority of society finds abhorrent. Instead their strategy is to prevent the public from finding out about what they are doing by making it a crime to expose their routine abuse of animals.