Iowa Still Trying to Protect Animal Abusers

It appears that the Iowa legislature has not given up yet on trying to pass the “protect the criminal” bill currently pending.

The bill will have two main effects. The first effect is to protect those who are guilty of animal cruelty from being exposed. The reality of the situation is that animal cruelty is taking place. If it were not, the bill would be totally unnecessary.

The second purpose is to prevent the public from seeing how the industry actually operates. Members of the Iowa legislature have actually openly stated that this is a main goal of the legislation. If members of the public see how their food is produced, it will increase the likelihood that they will become vegan or vegetarian.

The Supreme Court has stated definitively that this is exactly what the First Amendment protects. Very often the advocacy of ideas involves presenting the public with images and descriptions that they find distasteful, and would probably rather not see, but that an informed decision requires they view. For instance, the infant technology of photography was used to show the brutality of slavery in the years before the Civil War. We all can rest smugly in our rejection of slavery today, but this is a view that once had to fight for acceptance.

In short, it is not the place of the Iowa Legislature to determine what they will allow people to see. A much better use of their time would be to enact measures to prevent the cruelty, rather than just trying to prevent the cruelty from being seen.