New Laws Protect Animal Abusers

How Exposing Animal Cruelty Could Land You In Jail

Photo by Rajesh Rajput on Unsplash

In a democratic society which prides itself on values of freedom and justice, and whose citizens frequently proclaim themselves to be ‘animal lovers’, who would have thought that exposing animal cruelty could land you in jail, or that governments would be eager to create new laws to protect animal abusers, rather than protecting the victims or those trying to prevent the abuse?

Sadly, this is the reality of the 21st Century, where money rules and kindness and compassion appear to be nothing more than annoying inconveniences that get in the way of profit. Think I’m exaggerating? Read on…

In 2014 an undercover investigation by Mercy For Animals exposed sickeningly cruel treatment of turkeys at a farm belonging to ‘Hybrid Turkeys’, one of the largest turkey breeders in the world and who supply 60% of the turkeys sold in grocery stores across Canada. The horrific footage showed the turkeys being raised in cramped, dirty conditions, many of them being left to slowly die in agony with gaping, puss-filled wounds. Workers were filmed kicking and throwing turkeys, crushing their spines with bolt cutters and beating them with shovels.

Most of us would recoil at such extreme cruelty and abuse and it might be natural that you would expect legal action to be taken against either the company (which is one of the largest turkey-breeders in the world) or the individual workers, or both.

What you might not expect is for the heroes who exposed these terrible atrocities to be imprisoned for their efforts.

But this is exactly what is happening now to activists across Canada, the United States and Australia as a result of new ‘Ag Gag’ laws being brought in to protect the financial interests of companies who routinely abuse animals.

At 3a.m. on 3rd October this year, one week before Canada’s Thanksgiving holiday, six animal rights activists were arrested while leaving their homes to attend a peaceful demonstration at a Hybrid Turkeys facility in Canada. The protest had been organised by a group called Meat The Victims who have staged many such protests around the world. The activists are always peaceful and non-violent and their visits to farms have…