From Common Dreams: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/14-8
by Lauren Gazzola
Published on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 by Common Dreams
Monday’s veto by Tennessee governor Bill Haslam of legislation that would have required anyone recording animal abuse to turn over the footage to law enforcement within 48 hours is the latest point scored by the opposition in the controversy that has erupted over so-called ag-gag bills, which have been passed or proposed in 17 states. Critics – who range from animal advocates to civil liberties groups to Carrie Underwood, who told Haslam to “expect [her] at his front door” if he signed the TN bill – cite all kinds of problems with the laws: they violate the First Amendment; they silence whistleblowers, threatening food safety, workers’ rights, and the environment; they deny consumers the right to know how their food was produced; and they make it impossible to document a pattern of illegal animal abuse. Animal agriculture’s attempt to keep its most unsavory moments off camera has backfired royally, drawing more attention from more interest groups and shining stage lights on what the industry was trying to keep in the dark.
But you can’t blame them for trying. Multiple undercover investigations in recent years have have caught workers punching and kicking pigs, stomping on turkeys and bashing in their heads with metal bars, and forcing downed cows – those that are too crippled and sick to walk – onto fork lifts to be sent off to slaughter. None have this has been great for public relations. These investigations have led to slaughterhouse closings, animal cruelty convictions, and the largest beef recall in U.S. history. Consumer outcry has been clear: we want to know what’s going and if we don’t like it, we will stop you from doing it.
Not that a video is always necessary to spark outrage. News earlier this year that European consumers may have unwittingly been eating horse meat caused a massive scandal, despite assurances that the meat posed no health risks. No one had any idea how the horses were treated before they became burgers – there was no video – but that didn’t seem to matter. People were horrified to learn they may have eaten a horse when they’d thought they were eating a cow.
Which, when you think about it, is curious. Why do we cringe to think of eating horses (or dogs, for that matter, which is a common practice elsewhere in the world) while we are content to eat pigs, chickens, and cows as long as they are not brutalized? We should hardly be surprised when huge corporations like big-ag engage in egregious practices and then try to keep them hidden. But these controversies may be showing us something notable about ourselves: that we will accept certain levels of violence – which slaughter inherently is – as long as it is only inflicted upon certain animals. The problem, then, with the treatment that showed up on those undercover videos was that it dropped below some threshold of brutality that we will accept when it is delivered upon pigs, chickens, and cows, but not upon horses, cats, and dogs.
Continue reading at: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/05/14-8
