To: The United States Congress

For nearly two decades, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) has been used to intimidate, silence, and criminalize peaceful animal‑rights advocates — not because they are violent, but because their speech threatens powerful industries.

Under AETA, nonviolent actions such as:

• undercover investigations
• whistleblowing
• peaceful protests
• boycotts
• publishing footage
• organizing campaigns
  
  …can be treated as federal terrorism if they cause “economic damage” to an animal enterprise.

This is not public safety.
This is not justice.
This is a direct violation of the First Amendment.

 
🔎 Why This Matters
The First Amendment protects:

• free speech
• free press
• peaceful assembly
• advocacy
• dissent
• whistleblowing

These rights do not disappear when the subject is animal cruelty, factory farming, or corporate misconduct.

Yet AETA allows industries to shield themselves from scrutiny by labeling critics as “terrorists.” This law was written with heavy influence from the livestock, pharmaceutical, and biomedical research industries — the very entities activists seek to hold accountable.

No other corporate sector in America enjoys this level of protection from public criticism.

 
⚠️ AETA Chills Free Speech and Public Awareness
Because of AETA:

• Journalists fear prosecution for documenting abuse.
• Whistleblowers risk being treated like criminals for exposing violations.
• Peaceful protesters face disproportionate penalties.
• Advocacy groups self‑censor to avoid being targeted

This is not how a free society functions.
This is how democratic rights erode.
  
📢 We Demand Congressional Action
We call on Congress to:

 1. Repeal the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA).
No peaceful advocate should ever be labeled a terrorist for exposing cruelty, documenting abuse, or speaking out.

2. Pass legislation affirming that nonviolent activism — including undercover investigations, whistleblowing, peaceful protest, and economic boycotts — is protected First Amendment activity.

3. Prevent any future law from criminalizing speech, protest, or advocacy on behalf of animals, workers, consumers, or the environment.

4. Ensure that industries cannot use federal power to silence critics, intimidate journalists, or hide harmful practices behind claims of “economic damage.”

5. Condemn and preempt state‑level “ag‑gag” laws that criminalize whistleblowing and undercover investigations, many of which federal courts have already ruled unconstitutional.

6. Address the overbreadth and vagueness in federal statutes that allow peaceful advocacy to be mischaracterized as “interference,” “intimidation,” or “obstruction,” creating a chilling effect on constitutionally protected speech.

7. Guarantee that federal law is enforced neutrally and not selectively weaponized against a single category of activists, ensuring equal protection for all movements and all forms of peaceful dissent.

8. Remove nonviolent activists from terrorism-related watchlists if they have been wrongly classified just for participating in protected First Amendment activities. Also, stop the future use of federal surveillance tools against peaceful advocacy.

 

🗽 This Is Bigger Than Animal Rights — It’s About Democracy
Whether you care about animals, workers, the environment, food safety, or government transparency, the principle is the same:

No corporation should have the power to turn peaceful dissent into “terrorism.”

AETA sets a dangerous precedent: if economic harm becomes the threshold for terrorism, then any protest movement — civil rights, environmental justice, labor organizing, consumer advocacy — could be targeted next.

This is not the America the Constitution promises.

 
✊ Add Your Name
We, the undersigned, demand that Congress restore the First Amendment rights of all Americans by repealing the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and ending the criminalization of peaceful animal‑rights activism.

Protect free speech.
Protect whistleblowers.
Protect democracy.

Repeal AETA now.