Judge overturns Idaho's 'ag gag' law in victory for animal rights campaigners [View all]
Source: The Guardian
A federal judge has lifted a controversial ban on undercover surveillance inside Idaho’s factory farms, delivering a significant victory to animal rights’ activists.
Judge B Lynn Winmill ruled on Monday that the state’s so-called “ag gag” law violated the constitutional right to free speech.
“An agricultural facility’s operations that affect food and worker safety are not exclusively a private matter,” said the judge. “Food and worker safety are matters of public concern.”
The agriculture industry’s political allies passed the law last year after an undercover investigator with the advocacy group Mercy for Animals used a hidden camera to expose cruelty and neglect at Bettencourt Dairies, Idaho’s largest dairy factory farm.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/aug/03/judge-overturns-idaho-ag-gag-law-victory-animal-rights-campaigners
Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
Tuesday 4 August 2015 00.28 BST
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