I respectfully urge all readers to tell their senators that they oppose Senate File 431. This proposed legislation would silence whistle-blowers who speak out against cruelty to animals at farms, hatcheries and slaughterhouses by creating civil and criminal penalties for producing, possessing or distributing a record of a “visual or audio experience occurring at [an] animal facility.”

Senate File 431 represents a shameful attempt to silence whistle-blowers and prevent consumers from making informed choices about the food they eat.

It is also a blatant violation of our constitutional rights and it leads one to question the slaughterhouse and puppy mill owners lobbying for it.

What’s going on inside the facilities that you would go to such lengths to prevent people from seeing?

I believe those responsible for the inhumane treatment of animals should not be given a free pass to continue their abuses behind closed doors.

Rather than concealing cruelty and punishing those who expose it in factory farms and slaughterhouses, we should address inhumane conditions brought to light by strengthening Iowa’s animal cruelty laws.

Hidden cameras have long been a tool of journalists and filmmakers to spread awareness about human rights abuses in such facilities as insane asylums. Without them, it would be harder to generate public interest in lobbying for changes.