Eternal vigilence is the price of liberty. Except in Missouri, where the House of Representatives has passed a law banning photo-taking in barns.
The explicit target of the legislation is animal rights activists and press photographers who sneak into barns to take pictures of conditions there. “They’d like to come in and take pictures and say how bad it is when in actuality (the animals) have never had it so good,” said Rep. Legan, Republican sponsor of the (I kid you not) “anti-terrorism” amendment to the Agriculture Bill.
Legan had to be talked into toning down the felony punishment for such a grave offense from five years to “only” one year.
A picture may be worth a thousand words. It’s now also worth 365 days in the slammer. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Thomas Jefferson.
And just to be sure where the media actually stands in all of this, Rep. Legan added that the news media shouldn’t be allowed to conduct undercover investigative reports. “We have the investigators working for the Missouri Department of Agriculture who investigate these folks. Your job is to stay out of my business.”
We’re from the government. Trust us. Kind of an odd attitude for a Republican to take, don’t you think? Maybe the fact that he’s a farmer has something to do with it.
(Via Quiddity)
Couple this law and attitude with the NPR piece I heard recently, where McDonalds (of all the industires) is pressuring it’s egg suppliers to treat the chickens more humanely.
Apparently, in the factory egg farms, it is standard practice to let the chickens starve until the time that ALL THEIR FEATHERS FALL OUT, a process of about TWO WEEKS, before they restore feed to the birds. This works, increasing the egg production considerably.
The governement allows this. It is STANDARD PRACTICE. (Trust your government to do the right thing, always. We know what’s best for your chickens…)
I hate the PETA people, because I think ninety percent of their touchy feeling arguements are bullshit… (It does not traumatize a cow if you bet on where and when it will drop a crap, really people…) …I guess I would appreciate them better if they picked their battles with a few more brain cells.
I can’t stomach the idea of starving chickens so that I may eat.
I am glad my eggs come from the guy across the street, and am going to look for an organic source against the day he moves.
(By the way, the McDonalds suppliers are looking to lose Millions of Dollars this year, to keep the contract.)
I think most of us would be horrified to see what happens in factory farms.
Of course, I think most of us would be horrified to see what happens in cultures where you have to club your own cattle and skin and carve the carcass, too.
I approve of the tension between trying to treat animals fairly and providing the astonishing array of vittles we have access to. As long as the pendulum doesn’t swing too far in either direction, we probably have the least bad of all worlds.