Idaho introduces bill to jail activists who film animal cruelty on farms

Idaho's $2.5 billion dairy industry went on the offensive Thursday against agricultural espionage, where camera-wielding animal-rights activists spy on farms in hopes of catching cruelty to cows on tape.

The legislation, backed by some of the nation's largest milk producers, would put people who surreptitiously film their operations in jail for up to a year and slap them with a $5,000 fine. The measure follows Utah and Missouri, states that have already enacted so-called "ag gag laws."

Idaho dairies are promoting the measure following a video produced in 2012 by the Los Angeles-based vegetarian and animal-rights group Mercy for Animals. One of its members got a job at a Bettencourt Dairies facility in Hansen, then captured images of workers caning, beating and stomping on cows that had fallen on the farm's wet concrete floor.

Bob Naerebout, the Idaho Dairymen's Association president, said such clandestine missions should be forbidden, especially since these groups' members typically misrepresent their identities or backgrounds on job applications to infiltrate the milking barn.

"They obviously have an agenda against animal agriculture," Naerebout said. "It's never a legal purpose when you lie and deceive to gain access to an operation."

http://www.idahostatesman.com/2014/02/06/3012408/idaho-dairies-seek-to-stop-activists.html