Iowa state senator calls bill banning undercover videos of animal abuse “unconscionable”
A bill pending in the Iowa legislature to prohibit undercover videos of animal abuse would be “unconscionable,” says Iowa State Senator Matt McCoy.
“I think it’s an incredibly bad, ill-conceived bill,” McCoy told AnimalBeat.org in a phone interview about Iowa Senate File (SF) 431. “I think that the bill denies individual workers their rights as employees [who] witness animal cruelty and abuse, and then can’t report those to anyone but the employer.”
“And if they use video recordings or audio recordings of the alleged torture or the actual torture,” McCoy continued, “they can be held as Class D felons for this reporting and I consider that to be just completely outrageous. The whole bill is unconscionable as it relates to this particular issue, and I would oppose it in its current format or any amended format.”
SF 431 is a “companion” bill to House File 589, which passed last week, but has been referred to the Senate Agriculture committee for further review, according to various sources.
SF 431 and HF 589 are similar in intent, with backers including large-scale farming interests such as the Iowa Poultry Association, who say that their industry needs to be protected from “fraud” committed by animal welfare groups.
Among other things, the bill prohibits obtaining “access to an animal facility by false pretenses for the purpose of committing an act not authorized by the owner of the animal facility.”
Animal protection groups such as Mercy for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, and The Humane Society of the United States rely on gathering undercover video and photography in order to expose the abuse of animals that they allege runs rampant in the animal agriculture industry.
Listen to the rest of AnimalBeat.org’s audio interview with Sen. McCoy by clicking on the link above.
Please visit this page again for continuing coverage on the Iowa undercover video bills.
