Please Sign The Bill, Governor!

We've learned that Gov. Haslam plans to make a decision on the Animal Abuse Reporting Bill this week -- today or tomorrow! We need YOU to contact him right away and ask him to SIGN the bill. This is TN HB 1191/SB 1248. It requires someone working undercover to report cruelty and share their photos or video of animal abuse with law enforcement within 48 hours.

We need you to CALL or E-MAIL the governor NOW! (615) 741-2001 ; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov

Wayne Pacelle is in Nashville right now. Please help us STOP HSUS. Call or e-mail the governor NOW! (615) 741-2001 ; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov Ask him to SIGN THE BILL!

There is no good reason for animals to continue to suffer while people go on filming them being abused for weeks or months. We need TN HB 1191/SB 1248 to be signed.


Please crosspost!

Reporting Abuse Is Everybody's Fight

I was talking to a friend today about HSUS and the Animal Abuse Reporting bill in Tennessee and she said that she felt helpless and hopeless. Afterall, HSUS is spending at least $100,000 on ads in the state. They have their pet celebrities asking people all over the country to contact the governor. Even my friend's first-term state legislator is now cheering on a veto for the bill -- and she seemed like someone unaffiliated with HSUS previously. And, lo and behold, the USDA even makes the most conveniently-timed arrest of a Tennessee Walking Horse trainer that just happens to garner more publicity for HSUS, though it has nothing to do with the bill in question.

Yeah, that's all true. HSUS is a monster. And like most monsters, it's not easy to fight. But I think a lot of people are fed up. Fed up with an anti-agriculture organization that has no real love for animals trying to dictate to farmers and other animal people how they should raise and handle animals. Fed up with a wealthy, out-of-state special interest group fighting against a bill that we need in Tennessee to help stop animal abuse as soon as it's discovered.

This bill is very simple: Do you want to report animal abuse NOW, as soon as it's discovered? Or, do you want animals to go on suffering for weeks or months? Because if you want animals to go on suffering in an abusive situation, there could be cases where some animals die. It's that simple. That is what HSUS is advocating for their own purposes -- publicity, fundraising, "gotcha" moments. If you really care about animals then you MUST want the abuse to stop. You MUST demand that the abuse be reported as soon as possible. That's what this bill does. It requires someone working undercover to report the abuse and turn over copies of their photos or video within 48 hours to authorities SO THE ABUSE CAN STOP. People who really care about animals want the governor to SIGN THIS BILL.

I don't think it's hopeless. I don't know what the governor will do but he's certainly taking his time. Other states have beaten HSUS. Six states have passed similar laws. That first-term legislator who wants to veto this bill can be kicked out or she can learn more about HSUS so she knows what they're really like. HSUS claims they have 160,000 supporters in Tennessee but they barely have 800 fans on Facebook. I have nearly that many Facebook friends myself. Everything HSUS does is built on lies. We can beat them -- the collective "we" in this country. It will just take time. One bill, one case at a time.

Somebody replied to me the other day and said they had called the governor. They said, "This isn't Tennessee's fight. It's everybody's fight." I thought that was cool.

Please call or e-mail Governor Haslam and ask him to SIGN TN HB 1191/SB 1248, the Animal Abuse Reporting bill!  (615) 741-2001; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov  It only takes a minute of your day.
 

The Ugly Side of HSUS

Things start to get ugly when the Humane Society of the United States doesn't get its way. The organization, which had net assets of nearly $200 million in 2010, is in the process of trying to browbeat Tennessee and its governor into vetoing a piece of legislation that was passed by the state's legislature. That legislation -- the Animal Abuse Reporting bill, HB 1191/SB 1248 -- is not a complicated bill. It says if you see animal abuse related to livestock and you record it, you're supposed to turn copies over to law enforcement within 48 hours. If you don't, it's a misdemeanor and punishable by up to a $500 fine.

I don't think that's hard to understand. Nor is the desire to stop animal abuse as quickly as possible whenever someone encounters it. But the Humane Society of the United States hates this bill and others like it in other states. They call it an "Ag-Gag" bill. They say that they need to go on investigating for weeks or longer when they find abuse in order to establish a "pattern of abuse." What that means, it seems to me, is that they care more about trying to punish as many people as possible instead of trying to end the abuse quickly.

You may wonder what HSUS does with those assets since they take in about $150 million each year in total revenue and they spend less than 1 percent on helping animals in shelters. Well, they lobby legislators. Along with a full-time lobbyist in Nashville (they call her their "state director"), they hired a lobbying firm to help try to stop this bill, so they had about five more lobbyists than usual working for them this year. They also hired Eric Swafford, who has been associated with Tennessee Walking Horses. He's a former state representative and he was supposed to somehow encourage the Walking Horse people to oppose this bill. He was also cited for having a sored horse at a show last year. So, a lot of HSUS money is spent on lobbying.

They're also spending $100,000, at least, to run ads in Tennessee against this bill, trying to get people to ask the governor to veto HB 1191/SB 1248. That's a lot of money from an out-of-state special interest group. But they really, really hate this bill. And Wayne Pacelle really likes to get his way. Even when he has to spend a lot of money and push some poor, dumb farmers around. Because they think we're all dumb in Tennessee and they think farmers are dumb just because they're farmers. Afterall, they eat meat, don't they? And everybody knows (if you work for HSUS) that meat-eaters are dumb.

In fact, Wayne Pacelle hates this bill so much that he even went on the Ellen show this week and asked a national television audience to contact Governor Haslam and tell him to veto the bill.

Of course, I'm just another hick in the sticks in Tennessee so it's great that we have this national organization, led by whiney Wayne, to tell us all what to think and how to do things. How on earth would farmers ever get by without HSUS advising them? Afterall, HSUS has so much practical, hands-on experience with animals, right? Don't they?

Somehow I doubt that Wayne has ever gotten much manure on his pleather shoes or spent much quality time with cows. Not the man who said, "One generation and out. We have no problems with the extinction of domestic animals. They are creations of human selective breeding.” Yet, as a vegan, he feels it is his right, even his duty, to tell the rest of us how to raise and handle farm animals. Well, I guess when you have $200 million in the bank from gullible people you can do a lot of things. I just wish he would stop doing them in Tennessee.

Please contact Gov. Haslam TODAY and ask him to SIGN HB 1191/SB 1248, the Animal Abuse Reporting bill.  (615) 741-2001 ; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov Our legislators carefully considered this bill and we need it in Tennessee. Please don't let an outside group dictate what happens here. We want abuse to be reported quickly and recorded evidence turned over in a timely manner. Don't let livestock abuse continue when someone finds it so they can go on filming for their own purposes. Report it quickly and turn over the evidence! Sign the bill!

Tennessee Lawmakers Explain HB 1191/SB 1248, The Animal Abuse Reporting Bill

Watch this video from Tennessee Farm Bureau to understand what Tennessee lawmakers were thinking when they passed the Animal Cruelty and Abuse bill that requires someone to report abuse within 48 hours and turn over unedited film footage to authorities.

Animal Cruelty and Abuse HB1191/SB1248

 

This bill passed the 108th Tennessee General Assembly and requires a person who records cruelty to animals as committed against livestock to report such violation and submit any unedited photographs or video to law enforcement

Contact Gov. Haslam and ask him to SIGN the Animal Abuse Reporting bill TODAY: (615) 741-2001; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov 

The Need To Report Abuse

Please contact Gov. Haslam and ask him to SIGN TN HB 1191/SB 1248, the Animal Abuse Reporting bill: (615) 741-2001; e-mail bill.haslam@tn.gov

I was checking last night to see if Governor Haslam had made a decision about TN HB 1191/SB 1248, the Animal Cruelty and Abuse bill that requires photo and video evidence of cruelty to be turned over to law enforcement within 48 hours. I couldn't get the Tennessean site to open so I tried their Twitter feed and the first story I saw was the following:

3 Robertson County school employees indicted
Apr. 23, 2013 9:40 PM | 0 Comments

Written by
Eric Miller
Robertson County Times

Three Robertson County Schools employees have been indicted by the Robertson County Grand Jury for “alleged failures regarding reporting practices to law enforcement officials and the Department of Children’s Services,” according to a release issued by Robertson County Schools on Tuesday night...

Yes, that's a little vague. I had to look the case up elsewhere. They're being charged with failure to report known or suspected child sexual abuse. So, school employees -- not just family members or other people who have a close connection with children -- can be charged with failure to report abuse in Tennessee, even suspected abuse, and everyone is okay with that. But, if we want to require someone working undercover on a farm to report animal abuse and turn over their film evidence within 48 hours, we're infringing on their First Amendment rights?

You know, nobody is stopping anyone from reporting or investigating farms. No one is preventing anyone from telling the media exactly what they find in their undercover investigations. TN HB 1191/SB 1248 just makes it a crime not to report animal abuse within 48 hours when someone finds it. That's very much like the law to report child abuse to authorities.

There's no cover-up of abuse or anything that happens on a farm. In fact, turning over photos or video to law enforcement gets the authorities involved much sooner. The film evidence can be used in court -- and the media can cover the case.

This law has been called an "anti-whistleblower" law but that's not true either. Whistleblowers are free to report anything they see and they're protected. They just have a duty to report abuse within 48 hours and this applies to someone working undercover, too.

As much as animal rights activists claim that animal abuse is being ignored by authorities, it's important to remember that they have their own agenda. They are not law enforcement and they are not unbiased when they go undercover on farms. If they actually find animal abuse on a farm, then the decision about how to proceed shouldn't be left up to them. Evidence needs to be turned over to lawful authorities so a legal investigation can take place.

What really matters is that we stop animal cruelty as quickly as possible whenever it is found -- not that someone takes weeks or months to look for a "pattern of abuse" while innocent animals suffer. TN HB 1191/SB 1248 requires people to turn their evidence over within 48 hours so law enforcement can act. There is no need to let an animal continue to be abused so an animal rights group looks for more sensational film footage so they can raise more money. Stop the abuse as quickly as possible. If you care about animals that's what you should want and that's what this bill does.

We require people to report abuse when it involves children in Tennessee. Now let's require them to report cruelty and abuse of farm animals quickly.

Teddy Roosevelt Would Not Approve of These Muckrakers

Jack McElroy, at Knoxnews.com, writes an interesting and well-intentioned editorial about the Animal Cruelty and Abuse bill, or the Ag-Gag bill as it's sometimes called -- TN HB 1191/SB 1248. The bill that's currently sitting on Governor Bill Haslam's desk awaiting his signature.

In McElroy's article, "Bill sneers at the First Amendment," he compares the animal rights brigade of today to the muckrakers of the past who went undercover in unsavory businesses and brought to light some of the ills of society in order to end evil practices. McElroy describes how these muckrakers were praised by Teddy Roosevelt. Then he goes on to cast aspersions on the Tennessee General Assembly for passing HB 1191/1248.

According to McElroy the bill "sneers at the First Amendment" -- which guarantees our freedom of speech, and flies in the face of the Tennessee Shield Law -- the law that protects reporters from having to turn over to authorities their sources or unpublished material except in extraordinary circumstances. He believes this law should apply to your run of the mill animal rights person who lies to get a job on a farm because anyone can call himself a journalist these days.

I think there are some problems with Mr. McElroy's analogy. Whether or not the people who lie to get jobs on farms have good intentions and want to see animal cruelty ended is up for debate, as far as I'm concerned. Animal rights activists are often uninformed about farm life. They don't always understand what they're seeing on a farm and when they film something they can present it in a way that makes it look cruel even when it's an accepted, even traditional farming practice -- like disbudding the horns from calves or notching the ears on young pigs. You can film lots of animals squealing and crying to make people think the animals are being mistreated but what's being done is for their own good. (Kind of like the way kids at a doctor's office cry.) But show that film to people who live in Nashville or Knoxville -- people who have not been on a farm in a couple of generations -- and they're going to think that farmers are cruel.

The Humane Society of the United States knows this. They don't care. They count on it, as do Mercy for Animals and other groups which have specialized in putting people on farms and filming undercover. Do you really want to know why it takes these groups so long to turn over their video to authorities? It's because the footage has to be carefully edited and doctored to make things look as bad as possible.

Do you really think they film for six weeks or longer because they want to stop animal cruelty? No. They do it because they need plenty of film so they can splice things together. They might have to film for weeks before they even find something that looks questionable. (Put a camera in your home for six weeks and I bet someone could make a film that would make you look bad, too.) Their purpose isn't about stopping animal cruelty. These groups are opposed to animal agriculture in all forms and want to put farms out of business, while raising as much money for their own organizations as possible.

HB 1191/1248 does not prevent these groups from filming. What it does is require them to turn over their photos or film every 48 hours to law enforcement. This reduces the amount of time they would have to edit and play with the evidence for their own purposes. I don't think these AR infiltrators fall under the Tennessee Shield Law because they aren't necessarily journalists. Not everyone who posts something on the Internet is a journalist, despite what Mr. McElroy seems to think.

This law would reduce the likelihood that the film you see from a farm in Tennessee is faked. Is that interfering with the First Amendment? Well, it does cut down on their First Amendment right to lie, I suppose. I guess lying is protected speech under certain circumstances. But there are already some limits on free speech. You can't yell, "Fire" in a crowded theatre, for instance, and cause a panic for no reason. I think in this case the public good has to be weighed. It's not in the public good for animal rights zealots to edit together video taken over weeks or months to lie about our food supply or how animals are treated. Sure, go ahead and film. Show the truth and turn over the photos and video every 48 hours. But stop the fake editing. This gets law enforcement involved at an early stage and we can stop animal abuse as quickly as possible. If there's a food safety issue, we can address it.

I think it's a stretch to say that the Animal Cruelty and Abuse bill infringes on the First Amendment. This law is really about the timely reporting of any animal abuse and that should be something we all want. But even if it does touch upon the First Amendment, in this case I think the public good requires that this bill become law for the simple fact that HSUS and other animal rights groups have been playing fast and loose with the video they've been taking on farms. Farms and farmers need some protection from over-zealous animal rights agents who lie to get jobs on the farm and then put together film in such a way to make farm practices look bad. HSUS has been exploiting this situation to raise lots of money and that's not good for any of us who love animals. Why else do you think HSUS is fighting so hard to get the governor to veto the bill? It will affect their cash flow. If more states start passing these laws, it means HSUS won't be able to attack farmers so freely.

Similar laws have already been passed in six states: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and Utah. In some of these states the laws go much farther than with the Tennessee bill, prohibiting someone from lying about their reason for getting a farm job, for instance.

Animal rights activists are not the kind of muckrakers that Teddy Roosevelt would have approved. It's a nice idea, but if you're going to rake muck, you're supposed to tell the truth and that's something animal rights activists don't do with faked videos.

Please contact Governor Haslam today and ask him to SIGN the Animal Cruelty and Abuse bill (HB 1191/1248). E-mail him at
bill.haslam@tn.gov ; and call him at (615) 741-2001. Be sure you ask him to SIGN the bill!

Governor Haslam Needs To Hear From YOU!

Please call and e-mail Governor Haslam TODAY to ask him to SIGN TN HB 1191/SB 1248, the Animal Cruelty and Abuse bill that would require people to turn over film evidence of abuse within 48 hours.

HSUS, ASPCA, PETA, Mercy for Animals and other groups are all calling and asking the governor to veto this bill. Please contact the governor and ask him to SIGN it!

TAKE ACTION!

Use the NAIA capwiz. Just type in your name and address to send. It only takes a minute.

Call Governor Haslam and respectfully ask him to sign this bill. Here is the phone number for his Chief of Staff, Mark Cate:   1-615-585-0873 

Urge Governor Haslam to sign this bill into law today!


Legislative notebook: Singer urges Haslam veto on livestock abuse bill

    • By Tom Humphrey
    • Posted April 18, 2013 at 7:44 p.m.

Humphrey on the Hill

Tom Humphrey's blog on politics and legislative news in Tennessee

NASHVILLE — Country music singer Carrie Underwood is “begging” Gov. Bill Haslam to veto a bill requiring pictures or video of livestock abuse to be turned over the law enforcement authorities.

The bill (SB1248) was given final legislative approval by the House on a 50-43 vote Wednesday night, two days after it passed the Senate 22-9. That sends it to Haslam’s desk, though the formal transmittal process typically takes a day or two.

On Thursday, Underwood tweeted Haslam, with fans copied in:

“Please don’t sign the Ag Gag bill. Think about the welfare of the animals as well as the consumers. I’m begging you.”

Another Underwood tweet to fans: “Shame on TN lawmakers for passing the Ag Gag bill. If Gov. Bill Haslam signs this, he needs to expect me at his front door. Who’s with me?”

David Smith, spokesman for Haslam, said the governor did not respond to Underwood’s tweet. His office has received “a couple hundred emails and calls throughout the day” on the bill, Smith said.


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