Business lobby moves to criminalize filming animal abuse on factory farms

Bills being shopped in six states by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) would make it a crime to film animal abuse at factory farms or lie on job applications, in hopes of shutting down animal rights activists who infiltrate slaughterhouses to expose ghastly conditions.

"The meat industry's response to these exposes has not been to try to prevent these abuses from taking place, but rather it's really just been to prevent Americans from finding out about those abuses in the first place," Paul Shapiro, spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), told Raw Story. "What they're doing is trying to pass laws throughout the country that don't just shoot the messenger, they seek to imprison the messenger."

The proposals mandate that evidence of animal abuse be turned over to law enforcement within 48 hours, or face a financial penalty. Several of the bills bills also make it a crime to lie on slaughterhouse job applications, which activists commonly do in order to get footage like the content of a video published by the HSUS, embedded below.

Those bills appear to be spreading with the help of ALEC, a conservative business advocacy group that encourages lawmakers to "exchange" legislative ideas from state to state. The group came under serious scrutiny after the killing of Florida teen Trayvon Martin sparked a national controversy over so-called "Stand Your Ground" laws that ALEC facilitated in 18 states, enabling the use of deadly force if a person claims they felt their life was in danger. Lawmakers in a further 25 states adopted a spin-off of "Stand Your Ground" laws called "Castle doctrine" laws, which allow the use of deadly force against suspected home invaders.

The bills to block animal rights activists are in California, Nebraska, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas and Pennsylvania, according to The Associated Press. Three other states -- New Mexico, Wyoming and New Hampshire -- have already rejected similar bills this year, and HSUS told Raw Story that three more -- Minnesota, Vermont and North Carolina -- are yet expected to take them up.

Several states already have laws similar to what ALEC is pushing, and virtually all of them were triggered in response to shocking videos produced by animal rights activists, who some critics have taken to calling propagandists.

In one such recent case, undercover video from an Iowa factory farm produced by a group called Mercy for Animals caused the Iowa legislature to support a so-called "Ag-Gag" law that makes it a crime to lie in order to infiltrate a farm's staff. That act is now a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison and a fine of $1,500. Lawmakers in Utah passed a similar law in 2012 that bans unauthorized photography in farms. Missouri also has an older law that accomplishes effectively the same thing.

"This, I think, this a good example of just how much this industry has to hide," Shapiro said. "You know you've got a lot to hide when you want to make it a crime merely to take a photo of what you are doing."

"At the end of the day it's about personal property rights or the individual right to privacy," ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling told the AP. "You wouldn't want me coming into your home with a hidden camera."

An ALEC spokesperson did not respond to Raw Story's request for comment.

This video is from the Humane Society of the U.S., published May 21, 2012. It contains graphic content.

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Correction: Mercy For Animals is a national organization based in Los Angeles.