From what you've posted so far Nancy, it doesn't appear to be anything
that puts a stop to any legitimate employee documenting or reporting
animal abuse just a law against NON employees gaining access to the
property for the purposes of filming the animals.

Which seems a bit odd to me - as shouldn't such illegal access fall
under NO trespassing laws? Doesn't Iowa have any NO trespassing laws?
Being part of the corn belt Iowa has a large number of factory farms-
I can understand their concerns about non- employees gaining access -
we should ALL be concerned! Bio-terrorism is a real threat!

In this day of small personal technology - I doubt that they'll be able
to stop employees from documenting such horrid treatment. What's to
stop an employee from getting irate at this treatment and blowing the
whistle?

What is scarey too is that the new law's wording seems vague: The Iowa
law established a new penalty for lying on a job application to get
access to a farm facility, making it a serious misdemeanor, punishable
with up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $1,500. A second
conviction carries harsher penalties.

Just what this country needs - prisons full of people trying to stop
animal abuse while drug smugglers, rapists and murderers roam free!
Talk about skewed priorities!

So this new state law overrides any whistleblower law? Coming from a
farming background I know that well managed animals produce more- it
would seem extremely counterproductive to allow employees to treat the
animals so horribly. As an employer I certainly would want to know
about such goings on! I wouldn't want trespassers to gain entrance -
but don't most states already have laws against trespassers? This law
has ulterior motives written all over it!

It needs to be repealed immediately!

Cheers,
Kim

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[Posted in FML 7357]