Iowa Considers Bill to Criminalize Undercover Videos At Farms

from Democracy Now! 3/15/11

and here is an article from The Associated Press - AG Industry, lawmakers try to limit secret videos

In Iowa, lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it illegal for animal rights activists to go undercover and record video of farm animal abuse. Backed by Iowa’s agriculture industry, the bill would impose fines and prison sentences on anyone who seeks agricultural employment in order to capture footage. In recent years, undercover videos have revealed shocking conditions at a number of locations and have led to plant closures and meat recalls.

Did you see the way that "big, tough" fuckin' asshole redneck kicked the poor, innocent, defenseless calf? If you saw someone kicking a dog or a cat like that you would be outraged, but because it's a farm animal no one gives a shit about that. These animals are just as capable of feeling pain and emotions as any pet, yet people do very little to protect them. Why? Probably because most of the cruelty inflicted upon these animals is out of view or because they stupidly think that eating animals is necessary so it doesn't matter how they are treated.

Farmers in Iowa, Wisconsin and other places are supporting workers whose collective bargaining rights may be stripped away from them, but no one has any right to bitch about their ill treatment when they are enslaving, abusing and acting like bullies toward other creatures...simply because they can or because there is money to be made in it.

As long as people are allowed to get away with this kind of cruelty, we will never have a kinder, more compassionate and fairer world. I'm an atheist but I can appreciate the passage in the bible that reads:

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. ~ Matthew 25:40

If we cannot respect the rights of "the least of these my brethren" not to have harm inflicted upon them by us, then we have no business referring to ourselves as a humane and civil society.