Could Drones Finally Expose One Of The Country’s Most Secretive Industries?

Are aerial drones the answer we need to a wave of state laws seeking to criminalize efforts to expose health hazards and inhumane practices on corporate farms? One animal rights activist thinks so, and he’s won over hundreds of supporters who have donated money to help him prove his point.

Will Potter, a journalist who focuses on issues related to animal rights and civil liberties, recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to to raise money to finance a drone investigation of the country’s notoriously shady factory farms. “In my new project, I am going to use new investigative journalism tools to help expose what some corporations want to keep hidden. With your support, I will lawfully document factory farms in multiple states using aerial drone photography,” Potter explains on his fundraising page. He met his $30,000 goal in just five days.

Potter’s project is in direct response to so-called “ag gag” laws, which prevent activists from exposing inhumane practices within the agricultural industry. This type of legislation, which is pushed by the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has steadily spread across the country over the past several years. Idaho was the latest state to enact an ag-gag law, and that measure is currently being challenged by several groups who say it will ultimately undermine animal and food safety.

Undercover investigations have a proven history of leading to change within the industry. In 2008, a Humane Society video documented a California slaughterhouse abusing and killing sick cattle, which led to the largest beef recall in U.S. history and the largest penalty ever awarded for an animal abuse case.

http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/06/27/3454235/drones-factory-farms/



Given how uncomfortable any use of drones (military, corporate or personal) makes me, this is one instance that gives me pause in my previous conclusion of the damnable things...