This year, Iowa legislators are considering a bill which would impose a penalty of up to ten years in jail for documenting cruelty to livestock without permission. What this means is an end to undercover investigations by animal welfare organizations, as well as by whistleblowers within factory farms and slaughterhouses.

It would mean no more investigations like the one done by Mercy for Animals at Hy-Line International in Spencer, Iowa. That 2009 investigation blew the cover off Hy-Line, revealing that male chicks were being thrown into a grinder and killed within 24 hours of being born.

Organizations like the Iowa Federation of Humane Societies, the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, and the American Civil Liberties Union are lining up to lobby Iowa legistors to vote no on this bill. Join them and tell Iowa's House and Senate to vote no on HF 589.

Photo credit: Samdogs