Posted January 8, 2015
Four
Californians have been charged with violating Utah’s “ag-gag” law when they
took pictures of agricultural buildings last September, according to an All Gov
article available here.
The Spectrum also published an article available here
and The Salt lake Tribune here.
Utah is
one of the half-dozen states to ban photographing agricultural operations,
including the mistreatment of animals.
Amy Meyer
was the first person to be arrested and charged in February 2013 for violating
the law by using videotaping workers pushing an injured or ill cow with a
bulldozer at a slaughterhouse in Draper, according to The
Spectrum.
The
charges against Meyer were dropped three months later after she presented
evidence that she was on public property during the filming.
According
to the attorney, T. Matthew Phillips, representing the four defendants, Robert
Penney, 64; Sarah Jane Hardt, 43; Harold Weiss, 34; and Bryan Monell, 50, were
standing on public property, photographing the buildings at Circle Four and
“wanted to document the ‘trail of tears,’ if you will, from Utah to the
slaughterhouse in Los Angeles,” said Phillips. “They are standing on the
roadside and they took some pictures of the farm.”
Hardt is a
professional photographer, but she declined to comment on any of the photos
taken, according to The
Salt Lake Tribune.
Deputies
from the Beaver County and Iron County sheriff’s offices detained the group for
five hours, but they were never arrested, only cited.
“All of us
looked at each other and said, ‘What is this?’” she said. “Interfering with
agriculture? None of us knew what it was. When we get back to L.A., that’s when
[Phillips] tells us, ‘That’s ag gag.’”
In 2013,
an ag-gag bill failed in California, according to All
Gov.
Update Jan
14: Utah prosecutors are dropping the charges against all four activists,
according to The
Washington Times.
Each
activist still faces one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass, said Iron
County Attorney Scott Garrett. The charges were dropped because officials from
Utah’s Circle Four Farms didn’t want to pursue them, said Garrett.
