Life in Trump’s America Just Got Worse for Your Pet | The Resistance with Keith Olbermann | GQ

The pigs may tell the tale for Chris Christie

'Ag-Gag's' First Victim: Woman Faces 6 Months in Jail For Filming Slaughterhouse ... From Across the Street! | Alternet

'Ag-Gag's' First Victim: Woman Faces 6 Months in Jail For Filming Slaughterhouse ... From Across the Street! | Alternet
"A Utah woman has become the first person to be prosecuted under what are known as “ag-gag” laws, or laws meant to deter people from exposing animal rights abuses."

Animal-Death Profiteering State Lawmaker Suggests Animal Rights Activists Are Like Rapists

Animal-Death Profiteering State Lawmaker Suggests Animal Rights Activists Are Like Rapists: A Tennessee lawmaker sponsoring a new bill shutting down animal cruelty investigations suggested animal rights activists were engaging in “tape and rape” tactics, and were “intent on using animals the same way human-traffickers use 17 year old women.” The representative in question, Andy Holt (R-Dresden), owns and operates a facility that raises pigs, cows, and [...]/p

How A Federal Loophole Allows People To Torture Horses For Their Pleasure

How A Federal Loophole Allows People To Torture Horses For Their Pleasure: Tens of thousands of Tennessee Walking Horses are born in the United States each year, many of which are destined to perform a crazy-looking walk called “the Big Lick” in one of many famous shows. But trainers today beat, burn, whip, and electrify horses to make them act this way — and federal law will [...]/p

The Brutal and Secretive Trade of American Horses Killed For Their Meat | Alternet

The Brutal and Secretive Trade of American Horses Killed For Their Meat | Alternet
"Few Americans are aware that our country's horses are being exported and slaughtered abroad to supply other nations' taste for a meat that's shunned at home."

Wave of "Ag Gag" Bills Threaten Food Safety and Freedom of the Press

Wave of "Ag Gag" Bills Threaten Food Safety and Freedom of the Press
"In its original form, the "ag gag" bill was a blatant violation of the First Amendment right to freedom of speech and expression and would have quashed the right of independent investigators to document the truth. So legislators in Iowa and Utah changed the bills to make lying on employment applications a crime. Now factory farms and slaughterhouses can screen out reporters and other investigators by asking on job applications, "Are you affiliated with a news organization, labor union, or animal protection group"?"

USDA Considers Reintroducing Horse Slaughter to US | Common Dreams

USDA Considers Reintroducing Horse Slaughter to US | Common Dreams
"Animal rights advocates are voicing outrage over attempts to push the US Department of Agriculture to expand the slaughtering of horses within the United States. "

Five More States Consider ‘Ag Gag’ Laws To Silence Factory Farm Whistleblowers

Five More States Consider ‘Ag Gag’ Laws To Silence Factory Farm Whistleblowers: As state legislatures begin their 2013 sessions, a flurry of new “ag gag” bills to protect factory farms from potential undercover whistleblowers have been introduced in 5 states. This week, the Indiana Senate is debating a proposal to criminalize taking photographs or videos inside an agricultural or industrial operation without permission. Senate Bill 373 is [...]/p

ALEC: There Is No Climate Change, Environmental Danger or Animal Cruelty on Factory Farms, and Even If There Is You Don't Need to Know About It | Common Dreams

ALEC: There Is No Climate Change, Environmental Danger or Animal Cruelty on Factory Farms, and Even If There Is You Don't Need to Know About It | Common Dreams
"The "corporate bill mill" that is the fossil-fuel-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is alarmingly busy: It's pushing bills mandating the “balanced” teaching of climate science - the hilariously named ”Environmental Literacy Improvement Act“ - in public schools in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Arizona in addition to the 11 states it's already invaded. Most egregiously, it's also pushing so-called Ag-Gag bills, or the Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act, making it an "act of terrorism" for anyone to point out the animal and environmental horrors of factory farms, in New Hampshire, Wyoming and Nebraska, having already introduced them in 10 states."

Chick-fil-A’s Latest Horror -- Children's Book Loaded with Propaganda to Conceal the Horrors of Corporate Agriculture | Alternet

Chick-fil-A’s Latest Horror -- Children's Book Loaded with Propaganda to Conceal the Horrors of Corporate Agriculture | Alternet
"This is not an overstatement. Chick-fil-A, like most fast-food companies, is the retail expression of the factory farming industry — an industry whose  hideous treatment of animals, vertical integration and rooting in monoculture is the opposite of the diversified family farm so beautifully glorified in “The Jolly Barnyard.” Perhaps worse, as a primary buyer — and, thus financial supporter — of the factory-farmed products, Chick-fil-A is one of the major fast-food players responsible for the demise of “Jolly Barnyard”-esque family farms.

But rather than own up to its record with a children’s book about its odious business model, Chick-Fil-A (not surprisingly) wants kids to think of it through a much more pleasant story."

Body-Slamming Piglets To Death Is Humane, Big Food Lobby Claims

Body-Slamming Piglets To Death Is Humane, Big Food Lobby Claims: Secret video footage of a hog farm in Manitoba, Canada show workers body-slamming piglets into the floor, swinging them into metal posts and kicking them when they can’t stand up. The harrowing video was filmed by an investigator for animal rights group Mercy for Animals Canada, who went undercover at the Puratone farm for three [...]/p

Ohio Cracks Down On Brutal Treatment Of Puppies

Ohio Cracks Down On Brutal Treatment Of Puppies: Ohio, one of the epicenters of cruel “puppy mill” style dog breeders, passed a landmark bill on Tuesday restricting the ability of breeders to mistreat the dogs they are raising for sale. Because Ohio had virtually no legal oversight of breeders, it became “one of the biggest unregulated states” for puppy mills, understood as breeders [...]/p

Nation’s Largest Turkey Producer Faces Allegations Of Extreme Animal Cruelty

Nation’s Largest Turkey Producer Faces Allegations Of Extreme Animal Cruelty: A new undercover video of horrific animal abuse at five Butterball turkey plants in North Carolina revives longstanding concerns about animal cruelty at America’s largest Thanksgiving turkey producer. The video, shot by the animal advocacy group Mercy for Animals, depicts Butterball employees kicking the turkeys around, breaking their bones and leaving them to suffer, and [...]/p

National Pork Producers Council: Anti-Science & Anti-Animal | Common Dreams

National Pork Producers Council: Anti-Science & Anti-Animal | Common Dreams
"The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) summed up its anti-scientific and anti-animal views when, in attempting to defend the industry’s confinement of mother pigs in cages so small the animals can’t even turn around, NPPC communications director Dave Warner told the National Journal, “So our animals can’t turn around for the 2.5 years that they are in the stalls producing piglets. I don’t know who asked the sow if she wanted to turn around....."

‘Sickening’ Treatment Of Animals Prompts USDA Shutdown Of Slaughterhouse

‘Sickening’ Treatment Of Animals Prompts USDA Shutdown Of Slaughterhouse: The USDA has closed the slaughterhouse at Central Valley Meat Corporation in Fresno, California after evidence surfaced showing inhumane and illegal treatment of animals on the killing floor. A video distributed by the animal advocacy group Compassion Over Killing depicted utterly horrific treatment of animals that — aside from the obvious problems with the casual [...]/p

Man Tied Dogs To A Train Track, Will Get ‘Slap On The Wrist’ If Caught

Man Tied Dogs To A Train Track, Will Get ‘Slap On The Wrist’ If Caught: Of course, he wasn’t deterred by the risk of being caught entirely, and for good reason: Ohio has some of the weakest animal cruelty laws in the country. An investigation by Cleveland’s Channel 5 found that, while the vast majority of states make abuse a felony, it’s only a “slap on the wrist” in Ohio on the first offense

Pennsylvania Abuse Highlights The Need For Stronger Animal Protections

Pennsylvania Abuse Highlights The Need For Stronger Animal Protections: Police in Frackville, Pennsylvania recently rescued fourteen dogs from horrific conditions in a local home, which they said underscored the weaknesses in current animal welfare law. Sgt. Marvin Livergood, the officer who found the dogs, said he had never seen dogs kept in conditions this dire: Livergood could tell that one dog had wounds on [...]/p

GOP Rep. Steve King Defends Dogfighting

GOP Rep. Steve King Defends Dogfighting: If you believe that the United States should legalize dogfighting because we allow humans to fight, fear not. You’ve got an ally in the United States Congress. During a tele-townhall late last week, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) fielded a question about his opposition to animal rights and recently introduced legislation that would undermine local standards [...]/p

Steve King proud of new bill to prevent states from barring animal cruelty

Steve King proud of new bill to prevent states from barring animal cruelty
"He's referring there to efforts by states to require farmed pigs and cows have the luxury of cages that let them turn around, which several states have already passed laws on but which people like Steve King is the path to communism. So take that, states who give a crap about cruel farming practices!"