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

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The next few months are make-or-break for Mother Jones’ fundraising. We need to raise $300,000 quickly, and we need more online readers to pitch in than have been. Please learn more in "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," where we go into the brutal economics of journalism, and what makes Mother Jones unique and worth supporting if you can right now.

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.