2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumIdaho introduces bill to jail activists who film animal cruelty on farms
Idaho's $2.5 billion dairy industry went on the offensive Thursday against agricultural espionage, where camera-wielding animal-rights activists spy on farms in hopes of catching cruelty to cows on tape.
The legislation, backed by some of the nation's largest milk producers, would put people who surreptitiously film their operations in jail for up to a year and slap them with a $5,000 fine. The measure follows Utah and Missouri, states that have already enacted so-called "ag gag laws."
Idaho dairies are promoting the measure following a video produced in 2012 by the Los Angeles-based vegetarian and animal-rights group Mercy for Animals. One of its members got a job at a Bettencourt Dairies facility in Hansen, then captured images of workers caning, beating and stomping on cows that had fallen on the farm's wet concrete floor.
Bob Naerebout, the Idaho Dairymen's Association president, said such clandestine missions should be forbidden, especially since these groups' members typically misrepresent their identities or backgrounds on job applications to infiltrate the milking barn.
"They obviously have an agenda against animal agriculture," Naerebout said. "It's never a legal purpose when you lie and deceive to gain access to an operation."
http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/02/06/3012408/idaho-dairies-seek-to-stop-activists.html
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)... captured by Mercy for Animals. (warning: graphic, disturbing, disgusting images)
More quotes from the article:
"Dairies know the better you handle and care for your animals, the greater the return on your assets," Naerebout contends. "It's not logical that they mistreat their assets."
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House Majority Caucus Chairman John VanderWoude, who for 20 years owned a 300-cow dairy, said he was appalled at the cruelty he saw from the Mercy For Animals video. Still, the notion of somebody lying on a job application in a bid to capture such images strikes him as wrong.
"You've got to give farms the ability to protect themselves," said VanderWoude, R-Nampa. "You can't just have people running around with cameras."
<snip>
For instance, in the Bettencourt Dairies' case, not only were employees prosecuted and found guilty, but owner Luis Bettencourt fired five workers after seeing the video and installed video cameras throughout his 60,000-cow operation.
So, Mr. Bob Naerebout (or is that NaerDoWell?), Mr. John VanderWoude (or is that FantasyWorld), and Mr. Luis Bettencourt (or is that BeatemInCourt?) how do you propose to detect such abuse in the future? Where are the requirements that workers be given training in animal handling to insure they understand how to "not mistreat the 'assets'". Where are the regulations requiring video cameras and frequent reviews of the captured data, to insure that the "assets" are not mistreated? Where are the standards that ensure the "assets" are not contained in stinking, slippery, caverns of shit?. When will employers be prosecuted and found guilty for allowing animal abuse.
Admit it, you don't give a flying f*** about the 'assets'.
2naSalit
(86,780 posts)that's Idaho for ya. They don't do any better with their wildlife... and people aren't considered to be of much value either.
newfie11
(8,159 posts)To pass a bill to continue harming animals instead of stopping it is beyond sadistic!
They need to be treated the same way and see how humane it is.
To legally protect torture is beyond the pale!
Arcanetrance
(2,670 posts)idahoblue
(378 posts)kwolf68
(7,365 posts)was against laws banning "crush videos"?
Reasoning that it would lead to laws against hunting.
Someone above said "sadistic" and that about sums it up
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)More subsidies for these corrupt abusive dairies.