Has Your State Outlawed Blowing the Whistle on Factory Farm Abuses?

You’ve heard about things like pink slime, or contaminated slaughterhouses, cruelty on factory farms. But did you know that there’s a trend to criminalize those who expose such conditions? In his MoJo cover story, Ted Genoways found that “ag gag” laws have cropped up with increasing frequency in the past few years. Outlawing things like creating recordings at animal facilities or obtaining employment under false pretenses, these laws are intended to make it more difficult for activists and journalists to investigate and report animal abuses. In 2011, five ag-gag laws were proposed and two passed. In 2013, 14 were introduced, and seven including a quick reporting provision mandating that witnesses of animal abuse at must report it within one to three days or face criminal charges themselves. The effect is to make it much harder to report systemic abuse or other dangerous conditions. The map below shows where these laws have passed, failed, or are currently pending, along with details about what specifically these bills have tried or succeeded in outlawing.

Don’t Squeal

Which states have ag gag provisions?

 

Passed

 

Pending

 

Failed

 

If you see don’t see a map on the first try, please reload.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate