Governor wants to ID activists
AUGUSTA, Maine — A bill drawn up by RepublicanGov. PaulLePagewould make public the names of animal activists hired to film undercover footage of animal cruelty.
An adviser to LePage said this week that the governor’s bill would prevent “unwarranted political attacks” by letting businesses know “if the person has a history of undercover filming operations.”
“It is very easy for a person with a video camera to film things completely out of context and make a business or organization look bad in the public eye even when the business could be doing everything in accordance with the law and best practices,” Lance Libby, senior policy adviser for LePage, said.
Last summer, The Humane Society of the United States released undercover footage takenbyanemployee that it said showed “massive piles of dead chickens” at New England’s largest egg-producing farm, but the state later concluded there was no proof to pursue charges.
LePage says that a Humane Society operative got a job at the farm to manufacture phony cruelty claims and bolster support for a farmanimal treatment campaign in Massachusetts. Katie Hansberry, the Maine lobbyist for the Humane Society, said that a farm employee contacted the organization after witnessing neglect and that the group complained to the state days before releasing footage taken by an investigator.
The names of anyone who provides the state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry with information about animal cruelty are currently confidential inMaine.
LePage’s bill would maintain that law but release the names and identifying information of anyone who’s hired to film or record animal cruelty by an entity that provides the state with such information.