PETA Statement re Arkansas’ ‘Ag-Gag’ Bill

For Immediate Release:
March 23, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Foundation Counsel and Manager of Legislative Affairs Gabriel Walters regarding Act 606, Arkansas’ “ag-gag” law, which will penalize people who document cruelty in the industrialized meat industry as well as in puppy mills, laboratories, and other facilities:

Americans have a right to know what happens out of public view, and this law—which runs counter to this principle that all of us hold dear—is so broad that it could penalize someone who blows the whistle on child abuse in a daycare facility. PETA has fought “ag-gag” legislation across the country, and 19 other states saw how dangerous these laws were and rejected them. Arkansas should be ashamed that it has so much to hide, even from its own citizens.

PETA’s motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way.”