Evidence of animal cruelty on farms just got harder to procure

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Farmers get tougher on trespassers

Animal rights activists assail

 

By MODESTO BEE

 

SACRAMENTO -- Animal rights activists are sneaking into barns to

snap photos of penned-up pigs, freeing chickens from cages and

vandalizing farm equipment.

 

In response, farm groups and rural law enforcement agencies launched

a massive lobbying effort this year to push a bill through the

Legislature to strengthen trespassing laws on farms and ranches.

They did it in the name of homeland security.

 

Led by state Sen. Chuck Poochigian, a Fresno Republican who

represents a giant swath of San Joaquin Valley farm country,

supporters argued that animal rights groups could be infiltrated by

terrorists trying to contaminate the nation's food supply.

 

Effective immediately, a trespasser on land or buildings

where "cattle, goats, pigs, fowl or any other animal is being

raised, bred, fed or held for the purpose of food for human

consumption" can be fined $100 for a first offense and, for a second

offense, up to $1,000 and sentenced to six months in jail.

 

Under the old law, "our officers can do nothing more than cite such

trespassers with a $10 fine and ask them to leave the property,"

Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman said in a letter to lawmakers,

echoing the main argument to strengthen the penalty.

 

There are alternatives, however. There are about 20 trespassing laws

on the books. Only one carries the meager $10 fine; the others

already are linked to the higher $100 penalty. Prosecutors have the

flexibility -- and they use it to charge a trespasser on a farm or

ranch with the higher fine.

 

Poochigian said his bill removes any ambiguity about the various

trespassing laws and gives law enforcement another "arrow in the

quiver" to protect farmers, their animals and, ultimately,

consumers. But animal rights activists claim that the new law is

part a state-by-state effort to clamp down on protesters who are

critical of giant animal operations.

 

While many activist groups that opposed Poochigian's law don't

condone violence, they generally shrug off sneaking onto a farm to

take photos as an act of civil disobedience -- an effort to document

what they perceive as animal abuse.

 

But farmers and ranchers have been growing weary of harassment and

mischief from activists, and they're nervous about strangers

tracking in diseases to vulnerable animals. After the Sept. 11

attacks, the anti-terrorism rallying cry became a popular and

effective tool to take aim at the animal rights movement.

 

"There's growing concern about terrorism, and people can hit that

hot button to justify severe laws to punish those who may be viewed

as a threat to certain industries," said Wayne Pacelle, senior vice

president of the Humane Society of the United States.

 

"The industry is attempting to overreach, to inoculate itself from

public scrutiny."

 

Poochigian disagrees. He said the law's about terrorists and that

trespassing is still trespassing.

 

"I don't understand what the problem is," Poochigian said. "The law

will not affect any law-abiding citizen. It will not affect the

rights of protesters or First Amendment rights."

 

So is "food terrorism" real? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration

drew attention to the issue in an October report. "The threat to the

U.S. food supply is more than theoretical," the report says.

 

"When U.S. troops entered the caves and safe houses of members of

the al-Qaida terrorist network in Afghanistan in the months

following the Sept. 11 attacks, they found hundreds of pages of U.S.

agricultural documents that had been translated into Arabic.

 

"A significant part of the group's training manual is reportedly

devoted to agricultural terrorism -- specifically, the destruction

of crops, livestock and food processing operations."

 

Jerry Gillespie, director of the Western Institute for Food Safety

and Security at the University of California, Davis, said the

agriculture industry needs to take the concerns seriously with more

vigilance and increased security.

 

"It's going to be a major cultural change for us to patrol the

borders of our farms and ranches," Gillespie said. "I think if we're

serious about protecting our food supply, that's something we have

to weigh. We have to know who's coming and going on our ranches and

processing plants."

 

 

Furtive hog photographers

 

In February two women sneaked into a Corcpork Co. pig shed in Tulare

County through a ventilation access panel. The company, which

markets pork products under the Farmer John label, says it has

90,000 animals at its disease-controlled facility. No one can enter

without showering and wearing sanitary protective clothing. The

women managed to flash off a few shots from a digital camera before

employees caught them and called the police.

 

Days before, California State University, Fresno, had held a

conference of eco-radicals and animal rights activists that had

police in town on edge.

 

The women told Tulare deputies they were just passing through and

wanted to take photos of the hogs. One woman said she was an artist

who paints pictures of animals. Prosecutors weren't impressed with

their story.

 

"You want to take pictures of pigs, you go to the fair," said John

Gomez, deputy district attorney in Tulare County. "We believed they

were there to interfere with the business in one way or another."

 

The women were cited with misdemeanor trespassing and later pleaded

guilty to trespassing with intent to interfere with a lawful

business. They were placed on two years' probation, ordered to

perform community service and fined $100 -- the exact punishment in

Poochigian's new law.

 

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, one of only five legislators

to vote against the bill, said many lawmakers are scared to offend

the powerful agriculture industry. She said she doubts a $100 fine

will deter terrorists.

 

"This was really just an attempt to continue to hide from public

view the deliberate cruelty to living things that goes on in

industrial agriculture," said Hancock, who has been pushing a bill

to ban small cages used to raise calves for veal.

 

"To try to insinuate that this had anything to do with homeland

security is just silly."