State Senate Agriculture Committee Member Blasts Bill Seeking to Ban Filming on Farms; Undercover Video Footage to Be Screened
For Immediate Release:
June 6, 2011
Contact:
Robbyn Brooks 202-483-7382
New York - Sen. Tony Avella, who last week was among the few Agriculture Committee members to vote against a bill aimed at criminalizing filming on farms, will join PETA at the State Capitol to screen a short video revealing the routine, illegal animal abuse that would be kept from the public and police should the bill pass.
When: Tuesday, June 7, 11 a.m.
Where: Minority Conference Room (Room 315), State Capitol
"Lawmakers and the public need to know how PETA works hand in hand with law enforcement on these cases," says Avella, who will show how PETA's 2008 investigation of a farm that supplied pigs to Hormel resulted in the filing of 22 counts of livestock neglect and abuse charges against six workers, all of whom admitted guilt.
Avella will be joined by PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews, who has worked for 26 years on undercover cases in New York and across the country. Mathews has also asked the sponsors of the New York bill, Sens. Patty Ritchie and Catharine Young, to meet Tuesday to discuss their bill's implications.
This spring, Mathews and PETA have been battling similar anti-filming bills in Florida, Iowa, and Minnesota, with help from personalities ranging from Republican strategist Mary Matalin, who appealed to her party's lawmakers on PETA's behalf, to Des Moines native Cloris Leachman, who penned an op-ed against the Iowa bill. Mathews has engaged lawmakers in Florida and Minnesota, and the bills in both states have since failed.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
