‘Ag-gag’ law introduced in Washington state

• 

  freeimages.com/pnijhuis

  An 'ag-gag' bill has been introduced in Washington state’s House of Representatives.

  From WATTAgNet:
  A bill has been introduced in Washington state’s House of Representatives that would criminalize the use of undercover recordings at slaughterhouses and factory farms.
  The bill, also called an “ag-gag” law emulates similar laws in Kansas, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Iowa and Missouri.
  If House Bill 1104 in Washington becomes a law, anyone caught recording activities at an agricultural business without the owner’s consent would be committing a crime. Violators would be guilty of a gross misdemeanor and could be penalized with up to one year of jail time and a $5,000 fine.
  The bill specifies offenders as anyone who “enters an agricultural production facility that is not open to the public and, without the facility owner’s express written consent or pursuant to judicial process or clear statutory authorization, makes audio or video recordings of the assets or conduct of an agricultural production facility’s operations … .”
  "I view it as a way to protect the farmer," said Rep. Joe Schmick, who introduced the bill.
  Animal rights and civil rights groups are working to overturn the law in several states, but Schmick said he wants to protect agriculture practices in his state from being distorted to look like abuse.
  Washington Farm Bureau director of government relations Tom Davis said House Bill 1104 provides a starting point for discussing a complicated issue.

Utah prosecutors drop ag-gag charges against animal activists

• 

  Andrea Gantz

  Charges of violating Utah's ag-gag law have been dropped against four suspects who allegedly entered a hog farm to take photos.

  From WATTAgNet:
  Prosecutors in Utah are dropping charges against four animal rights activists accused of violating the state’s ag-gag law. The agricultural interference charges are being dropped at the request of Circle Four Farms, the company that operates the pig farm where the suspects allegedly trespassed to take photos of the operation.
  The activists from California and Maryland will still each face one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass, said Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett. Prosecutors received the case after the four activists pleaded not guilty last week for an incident that allegedly took place in September 2014.
  The agriculture interference counts came under a state law, commonly known as the ag-gag law, that makes it a crime to conduct undercover investigations of agricultural operations.
  Police say the four activists from the Farm Animal Rights Movement drove onto private property at the hog farm in September and took pictures. Their lawyer says they were on a public roadway and only captured images of farm buildings, not workers or animals.
  Attorney T. Matthew Phillips has said his clients wanted to retrace the pigs' path to a California slaughterhouse, not provoke an arrest. They are Sarah Jane Gage, 43, of Los Angeles; Robert Penney, 64, of Laguna Beach, California; Harold Weiss, 34, of Pasadena, California; and Bryan Monell, 50, of Mount Rainier, Maryland, according to court records.
  Circle Four Farms is part of Murphy-Brown LLC, the livestock production subsidiary of the world's largest pork producer, Smithfield Foods. The Utah farm raises and markets about 1.2 million hogs per year and employs about 450 people.

4 who photographed pig farm charged under Utah ag gag law

• 

  freeimages.com/lusi

  Four animal rights activists who are suspected of photographing a Utah pig farm have been charged under the state's ag gag law.

  From WATTAgNet:
  Four animal rights activists who photographed a Utah pig farm in September 2014 may be the first defendants prosecuted under the state’s "ag gag" law.
  Robert Penney, 64; Sarah Jane Hardt, 43; Harold Weiss, 34; and Bryan Monell, 50, all California residents, have each been charged in Iron County Justice Court with one count each of class B misdemeanor criminal trespassing on agricultural land, and agricultural operation interference.
  The suspects, who are with the Farm Animals Rights Movements, were aware that Utah had an ag gag law — which makes undercover investigations and surreptitious recording of animal agricultural operations a crime — and were planning to take photos of the farm from public areas.
  Hardt told reporters she and the other animal rights activists were planning to document the trek that truckloads of pigs took from the Utah farm to a downtown Los Angeles slaughterhouse. She asserts they did not enter the property that was photographed.
  A witness had apparently alerted local authorities about the group near the farm, and they were detained by deputies from the Beaver County and Iron County sheriff’s offices for five hours. They were never arrested, Hardt said, but they were given citations.
  The four suspects are scheduled to make their first appearances in the justice court in Parowan on January 7.
  The law was passed by the Utah legislature in 2012.