What Everyone Needs to Know About Ag-Gag Bills + How You Can Help

Today I want to bring awareness to an important issue that affects us all…meat-eaters and plant-eaters alike. Have you heard about the Ag-Gag bills? Ag-Gag bills have been introduced in state legislatures around the United States and they seek to criminalize whistleblowers on industrial farms. There are unimaginable atrocities committed on industrial animal farms that not only affect the farm animals, but they greatly affect you, the consumer, as well. Industrial farm practices are already shrouded in a veil of secrecy and the Ag-Gag bills seek to bury their secrets even deeper by silencing those who speak out against them.

You might be asking yourself, how do the Ag-Gag bills really affect me? Here’s one example. The conditions on industrial farms can be so inhumane that the animals intended to be your dinner will spend their lives crammed in windowless barns, unable to move, and sitting in pools of their own feces, urine and other bodily fluids. They then become sick and diseased, only to later end up on your plate, with no mention to you, the consumer, about the conditions they were living in. And I’m guessing no one wants to be eating sick, diseased, filthy animals that were covered in feces right before they were sent to the supermarket, right? When conditions get out of hand like this, whistleblowers are the ones to tell the public, and then the public in response demands change. But if Ag-Gag bills are passed, and whistleblowers are silenced, then there’s no one to let the public know when conditions are unacceptable. And no one to demand change.

But, the good news is, there are things we can do to help. The ASPCA recently launched their new Open The Barns movement, in which farmers and advocates voice their reasons for opposing the Ag-Gag bills and supporting a more transparent, healthy, humane food system. Here are ways you can help the Open The Barns/anti-Ag-Gag movement:

• Create awareness on social media by sharing a compelling image that shows one of the many ways that Ag–Gag laws are dangerous for animals and consumers. Images can be found at http://pitch.pe/1IvO8uw.
• Spread the word using hashtag #OpenTheBarns with posts that offer your reason for believing in a more transparent farming system, for example:
  • Farm animals shouldn’t suffer in secret. Join the @ASPCA and help #OpenTheBarns!www.aspca.org/openthebarns  
  • Ag–Gag laws are dangerous for animals and consumers. It’s time to #OpenTheBarns! www.aspca.org/openthebarns 
• Sign the pledge to be an advocate against Ag–Gag and help improve the lives of farm animals in your state:www.aspca.org/openthebarns

It’s a sad reality but we can all take steps, big or small, to make it a better one.