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Half of U.S. states have attempted to pass “ag-gag” laws, but only seven have been successful, according to the Associated Press:  “Among them are Idaho, where this year’s law says unauthorized recording is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine, and Utah, whose 2012 law makes it a crime to provide false information to gain access to a farm. Both states now face separate but similarly worded lawsuits that say the measures violate federal statutes offering whistleblower protections and free-speech guarantees.”

Not surprisingly, agribusiness claims to have nothing to hide and states it lobbies for “ag gag” laws merely to “protect their families and businesses,” but we know the truth: they don’t want the public to see what happens to animals on factory farms.  The windowless sheds that are far from public view are a case in point.  Agribusiness also claims that the footage taken by undercover investigators represents “a few bad apples” in the business.  But we know otherwise. Mutilation of farm animals, such as tail docking and debeaking, is literally built into the business, and egregious physical abuse and torture are rampant, as exposed in one undercover investigation after another by groups such as Mercy For Animals, PETA and HSUS.   Please support the work of the organizations fighting against the “ag gag” bills.  The footage and photos taken behind closed doors at factory farms is critical to changing hearts and minds.  It was precisely that type of footage that made me go vegan.   To learn more about “ag gag” bills and to see how you can help, please visit HSUS.

Undercover video taken by a Mercy For Animals (MFA) investigator exposes the torture of baby turkeys on Butterball factory farms. MFA has turned over this evidence to local law enforcement, which is currently considering criminal animal cruelty charges. Butterball, which is the nation’s largest turkey producer, is responsible for 20 percent of the 252 million turkeys killed each year.

Factory farms are inherently abusive because the animals are mutilated, ground up alive, confined, torn from their mothers and stripped of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them. Abuses that are not built into the system, such as the ones mentioned above but are pervasive nonetheless are the beatings — the “kicking and stomping on turkeys and bashing in their heads with metal pipes.” Please share this Butterball video so that people who think that eating a turkey sandwich is a benign activity are exposed to the truth.

The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) has released undercover footage of baby dogs and cats and their mothers being physically and emotionally abused in a barren U.K. lab owned by the pharmaceutical company Merck. The video shows young puppies being separated from their mothers, who are killed because their job of delivering babies to the lab was complete. It also shows the puppies being injected, killed and dissected in front of their brothers and sisters. In a Care2 article, the BUAV said that “While many of these animals could have been rescued, simply killing them and tossing their bodies in the trash is easier than making any effort to find them homes.”

https://youtu.be/5mE4uCacUmc

Like agribusiness owners, researchers who test on animals go to great lengths to hide their experiments from public view, knowing that people would be outraged to see how the imprisoned animals suffer and die. As PETA explains, “They languish in pain, ache with loneliness, and long to roam free and use their minds. Instead, all they can do is sit and wait in fear of the next terrifying and painful procedure that will be performed on them.” Modern day science has provided scientists with alternatives to animal research, but because of government regulations, laziness and money, the brutal experiments continue. To learn more about animal testing and find out how you can help, please PETA’s Animals Used For Experimentation website.

Today, Idaho’s governor signed an “ag gag” bill outlawing the taking of photos and video in factory farms. Thanks to the elected officials who are beholden to the dairy lobby, whistleblowers are now criminals. This undercover video from Mercy For Animals, taken before the bill became law, shows exactly what the dairy industry and all agribusinesses are trying to hide.

Factory farms are concentration camps for animals, and agribusinesses will move mountains to prevent the public from seeing what happens inside. They know from experience that the public opposes an industry in which baby animals are kidnapped from their mothers, confined in cages, mutilated and stripped of the ability to do anything that comes naturally to them before being rounded up and slaughtered. The undercover investigators, who wear hidden cameras to document these abuses, risk their safety, financial security and freedom to expose the public to factory farming. Please help make the most of their heroic work by sharing their videos with your networks.