District attorney says he needed undercover video to make calf abuse case

[harvey007]

Source: The Examiner

The district attorney who filed animal cruelty charges against employees and the owner of a large-scale calf-raising farm this week says he probably “wouldn’t have a case” if not for covert video provided by an animal protection group.

Castro County DA James R. Horton said that without the footage from Mercy for Animals (MFA) “we wouldn’t have anything” in terms of evidence against the suspects in the beating deaths of dairy calves at E6 Cattle Co. in Hart, Texas.

Read more: http://www.examiner.com/animal-policy-in-national/district-attorney-says-he-needed-undercover-video-to-prosecute-calf-abuse-case

[liberalla]

1. Proposed legislation would outlaw undercover videos of animal abuse

Proposed legislation would outlaw undercover videos of animal abuse

Over the past year lawmakers in three states—Florida, Minnesota, and Iowa—introduced bills that would restrict or prohibit covert videos and photography at animal use facilities.

The bills failed to pass in Florida and Minnesota. The Iowa bill, House File (HF) 589, passed the General Assembly's House and is now pending in the Senate. It would allow for felony convictions, fines, and imprisonment with penalties stiffer than those imposed for the abuse itself, according to Sen. Matt McCoy, who opposes the proposed legislation.

“A person is guilty of animal facility interference,” states the bill’s description on the Iowa legislature’s website, “if the person acts without the consent of the owner of an animal facility to willfully… produce a record which reproduces an image or sound occurring at the animal facility…” or “…possesses or distributes a record which produces an image or sound occurring at the animal facility…”

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These types of crimes make me feel like retching. I just don't get it at all. The mindset of people who do this...

I REALLY hope this law doesn't get passed and signed in Iowa.

[saras]

2. It baffles me how a law outlawing the observation and recording of crime is constitutional or legal

[liberalla]

4. You would think so, right?

Just one more law to protect business interests.

You are right, if passed, it could/should be challenged in court.

[Doremus]

3. Thank you for your bravery, Mercy for Animals. n/t