Film a Farm, Get 30 Years in Prison.

Inspired by Iowa no doubt, the Florida legislature is introducing a bill to make photographing or videotaping a farm without written consent a felony.

Under the proposed law, a person caught taking simple photographs or video recordings of the conditions on factory farms would be committing a felony act. Violators could face a $10,000 fine and serve as much as 30 years in prison. 

Imagine being a witness to a crime, a clear violation of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), and not being able to expose the perpetrator because YOU would be the one locked away for 30 years.

The Florida Independent explained that there are currently NO mechanisms in place to monitor animal welfare on factory farms and that independent investigators are the ONLY people who keep the industry in check.  God knows they won’t do it themselves.

The animal industry, and their colleagues in government, seek to make abuses on factory farms a secret. Any reasonable person, even one who eats meat, doesn’t want workers on factory farms to operate without any accountability. Hell, when I worked at a grocery store we had secret shoppers and we weren’t even responsible to lives of thousands of animals a day and the integrity of the country’s food supply.