Gaining employment under false pretenses is a tactic commonly used by animal rights activists on farms in all states. A bill that would make it illegal for people to be hired at Missouri livestock operations for the sole purpose of trying to obtain videos of animals being mistreated has advanced in the state legislature. The Missouri House has given initial approval to an ag package that, among other things, creates the crime of ‘agriculture production facility fraud.’
Ag Policy Committee Chairman Tom Loehner of Koeltztown, Missouri said on the House Floor, that footage of normal livestock production practices can be taken out of context to make a facility look bad.
“Whether it be a cow that maybe got hurt and went down – you’ve gotta get it up somehow,” says Loehner, “You pick it up and you can’t pick it up by hand – and – you hook whatever you can to it to raise it up to get it out of the way. I mean, you can take a (video) shot of that, somebody pickin’ up a cow with a skid steer, and you just block that out for that second and it looks like we’re just killin’ this thing.”
Loehner says farmers need protection from that. Urban legislators argued farmers should have nothing to hide. Another favorable vote on the omnibus ag bill would send it to the Missouri Senate.
~Missourinet contributed to this report~
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With today’s technology, ANY photos or video can be altered to whatever is needed to make the case. What has to be considered is the *source* of the video. If it’s an “animal rights” group, IT HAS NO CREDIBILITY, PERIOD. That is what we need our legislators and urban public to understand. The agenda of the AR INDUSTRIES (H$U$, PeTA, ALDF, et al) is the *erosion of animal use* to the extent that society will allow it, AND meanwhile these AR *businesses* make money **off the backs of animals** and strive to *punish humans* for not accepting the anti-animal-use vegan way.
While I appreciate this article for telling the real reason for consideration of this legislation, I am not sure calling it an anti-farm video bill is any better than the animal rights advocates calling it ag-gag. I understand that the title means the bill is against video taping of farms, the phrasing makes it sound like it is against farms. This is actually a farm facility protection bill. Classic example is the most recent one in PA, an HSUS employee videotaped for 3 months, edited for 3 months and then releases it on the HSUS website with a plea for money and support for federal legislation. Does that sound like someone who really cared about the animals? Inspection of the facility by the Dept. of Ag and veterinarians found none of the conditions shown in the video. What proof is there that the video is actually taken where/when the activists say? One last month showed artificial insemination as abuse. We must find ways to educated the average consumer about ag practices and protect our livelihoods at the same time.