Joe Ferguson says he just couldn’t take it any longer. The former inspector for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) spent more than 23 years monitoring operations inside pork processing plants inspecting hog carcasses for signs of anything that could translate to a food safety problem, in particular hints…
Animal Rights Group Files Criminal Misdemeanor Affidavits Against Tyson and Six Employees
For the third time since July, food industry giant Tyson Foods Inc. has been the target of an undercover animal cruelty investigation by Los Angeles-based Mercy for Animals. 
This time, the animal rights group has signed affidavits against Tyson Foods and six of its employees, hoping it can get misdemeanor criminal charges to stick. And…
Letter From the Editor: Stop Censorship of Undercover Videos
Constitutional rights not used or claimed might not survive from one generation to the next. It’s not good enough to say that because of New York Times Co. v. United States (1971), no prior restraint — meaning no government-imposed censorship or punishment — may exist against anyone’s rights to speak or publish under the First…
MN Hog Farm Suspends Workers Before Group Releases Undercover Video
When an animal agriculture facility is caught with workers abusing their charges, the usual routine is to wait until the undercover video is made public and then, maybe after a day or two, fire the offending employees. Last Friday, however, Sleepy Eye, MN-based Christensen Farms was the first to act when it announced the suspension…
Worker Fired, But Undercover Pig Farm Video Not Enough for Criminal Charges
A “food fight” over allegations of possible inhumane animal treatment broke out in Minneapolis on Tuesday. On one side is the pig-raising Rosewood Farms at Pipestone, MN, which just happens to be owned by Randy Spronk, current president of the National Pork Producers Council. On the other side is a group of activist vegetarians called…
‘Show Me’ State Compromises on Ag-Gag
With the clock ticking down to adjournment today, the Missouri Senate pulled a surprise late Thursday by not bringing up the so-called “ag-gag” bill but instead passing an omnibus agriculture law with some changes in law that look like an ag-gag compromise.
After a long day in Jefferson City, the Senate voted 25-5 for final …
Missouri May Be Moving Forward With ‘Ag-Gag’
A Missouri Senate committee will hear and likely recommend approval of House Bill 1860, the so-called ag-gag bill the lower chamber already approved on a 124-29 vote.
If that happens, HB 1860 will get a final up or down vote on the floor of the Missouri Senate, possibly before the end of the week.…
Iowa Approves Nation’s First ‘Ag-Gag’ Law
Four years ago, undercover video recorded workers on forklifts forcing “downer” cows into slaughter at the Hallmark and Westland meat plant in Chino, CA, which at the time was a top supplier to the National School Lunch program.
The sting, by the Humane Society of the United States, put Hallmark and Westland out of business. …
More Documented Abuse of Iowa Animals
This might not be the best time to release an undercover video of cruelty to Iowa farm animals.
A bill to outlaw such videos, and punish people who make them, remains alive in the Iowa Assembly. Presidential candidates from both parties are showing up in Iowa by the day now. It’s the time when what …
Texas Sheriff Probes Brutal Treatment of Calves
Animal agriculture in the Texas Panhandle may be tested soon on whether it can punish its own when severe abuse is involved.
Castro County Sheriff Salvador Rivera is now investigating E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas after a Mercy For Animals undercover video surfaced last week showing brutal mistreatment of animals.
Located between Amarillo to …