PETA Statement re Court Decision to Dismiss Challenge to ‘Ag-Gag’ Bill

For Immediate Release:
May 2, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Please see the following statement from PETA Foundation Counsel and Manager of Legislative Affairs Gabriel Walters regarding the district court’s decision to dismiss a challenge to the constitutionality of North Carolina’s “ag-gag” law—which penalizes whistleblowers and others who expose criminal abuse of animals in the industrialized meat industry, laboratories, and other settings—exclusively on procedural grounds:

Courts across the country have ruled that whistleblower intimidation laws like North Carolina’s are a clear violation of the First Amendment, and numerous bills have been defeated on the same grounds before they even became law. PETA believes that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will agree that this law is unconstitutional and will protect citizens’ right to know about abuse in nursing homes, schools, and slaughterhouses in North Carolina.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—joins Food & Water Watch, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Government Accountability Project, Farm Sanctuary, the Center for Food Safety, Farm Forward, and the ASPCA in this lawsuit. More information is available on PETA’s website.