Today, a federal judge struck down Idaho’s controversial
ag-gag law as unconstitutional.
The ag-gag law was enacted in direct response to a
2012 undercover investigation by MFA documenting horrific animal cruelty and
neglect at Bettencourt Dairies, Idaho’s largest dairy factory farm.
That investigation, which documented workers
viciously beating and shocking cows, violently twisting their tails, and even
sexually abusing cows, led to charges of criminal animal cruelty against
multiple Bettencourt Dairies workers, including a manager, and spurred
significant animal welfare policy reforms by major food suppliers.
In 2014, pro-factory farming legislators and Idaho
governor “Butch Otter enacted an ag-gag law to ban filming inside factory
farms and criminalize the brave whistleblowers who speak out against animal
cruelty and other criminal activity occurring inside of Idaho’s agricultural
facilities.
In response to a legal challenge brought by a coalition of
animal protection, food safety, and civil liberties groups, Judge B. Lynn
Winmill of the U.S. District Court for the district of Idaho held that the law
violates the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
Based on today’s ruling, Idaho’s ag-gag law is no longer in
effect.
You can watch MFA’s Idaho dairy investigation here:
Judge Winmill’s decision is the first step towards restoring
transparency in U.S. food production, and we hope that dangerous ag-gag laws
enacted in other states will be swiftly struck down as a result of today’s
decision.
Idaho’s lawmakers should be ashamed of wasting
precious time and valuable resources enacting unconstitutional laws that
threaten animal welfare, food safety, workers’ rights, and the environment. We
hope they will now focus their efforts on improving animal welfare and
rewarding the brave whistleblowers who uncover criminal activity in Idaho’s
agricultural operations.
This ruling should also be a wake-up call to the
meat industry that attempts to keep consumers in the dark about where their
food comes from will not be tolerated.
For more information, please visit NoAgGag.com.