Bill Takes Aim at Animal-Rights Videos at Farms

Filming or photographing farm animal operations without a farmer's consent would be criminalized under a bill sent to the Kentucky Senate.

The Senate Agriculture Committee attached the language to a House-passed bill on Tuesday.

Kentucky Farm Bureau executive Jeff Harper says the provisions are needed because Kentucky is becoming a target of animal-rights activists who secretly film or photograph farm operations.

Paul Shapiro, a vice president with the Humane Society of the United States, says the state's meat industry is trying to silence whistle-blowers seeking to expose animal cruelty or food safety violations.

He says the bill comes a month after Humane Society whistleblowers exposed animal abuse at a western Kentucky pig farm. If the Senate passes the bill, it would return to the House.