Why the FBI is tracking citizen journalists caught video recording on factory farms

If you're a nutrition journalist or an animal activist with a camcorder, beware. The FBI may be tracking video recorders and possibly labeling them as terrorists. Check out the December 29, 2011 Los Angeles Times article by Dean Kuipers, "FBI tracking videotapers as terrorists?"

You also can check out the recommendations of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, according to the LA Times article. Animal activists who use video recordings while making secret or undercover investigations on farms could be prosecuted by the FBI as domestic terrorists.

What if you're a nutrition reporter interested in food investigations or animal rights or simply want to record livestock being abused so you can let restaurants know that they're meats, fish, or eggs or baby animals or any type of animal is being abused? Just when you think you're helping, the FBI can prosecute you for visiting a farm with your camcorder, whether it's hidden or not.

Check out the LA Times article, "FBI tracking videotapers as terrorists?" which refers to new documents obtained by requesting documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents show how the FBI advises that activists had violated terrorism statutes by referring to a case where an activist walks onto a farm to video record how animals on the farm were being treated or mistreated. In that case noted, the person 'rescued' an animal. And that act of video recording by itself was enough to violate terrorism statutes.

There's a website where the documents were published. Check out Will Potter’s website, Green Is the New Red. Also check out the Joint Terrorism Task Force. You can't take animals off of a farm (to rescue the animals from abuse). You can't video record animals on a farm.

The FBI notes discuss the videotaping, illegal entry and the removal of animals, then concludes with “there is a reasonable indication that [Subject 1] and other members of the [redacted] have violated the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, 18 USC Section 43 (a).”

Check out the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. The penalties for such a conviction can include terrorism enhancements which can add decades to a sentence. Please read the LA Times article. Also note a case where a group called Gourmet Cruelty, were prosecuted for a different but similar act in which they walked onto a fois gras farm, videotaped the operation and took a few ducks. They were prosecuted for felony burglary and pleaded to misdemeanor trespassing.

The FBI isn't interested in your possible "civil disobedience," which you'd probably call animal rescue. If you can't expose horrific cruelty on factory farms, who will when the FBI will arrest you for terrorism? You could be put in prison for many years, if convicted.

Don't be surprised at what terrorism is defined as with the FBI. There's a reason. What you need to do instead is educate the public without incurring a trespassing charge or a charge of terrorism or theft. One way to educate the public is through the court system. Instead of civil disobedience, try a lawsuit. At least if what you're doing is legal, it can't be called terrorism because it has to work its way through the courts.

The impatient activist will go onto the farm. The patient activist will talk to legal professionals about what can be done that's not defined as terrorism or theft, trespassing, or other crimes.

You can't be exactly like Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks nowadays if you're video recording on private property or rescuing an animal from a private factory farm. And you can't occupy a factory farm like you occupy a public park with a large group following.

You need to learn the difference between terrorism and civil disobedience. Nowadays, the civil rights movement would quickly be turned into a terrorist movement, if the FBI had created a task force to make it that way back then.

Check out the First Amendment. You know trespassing and animal theft in the name of rescuing the animals is a crime. There has to be a way to save the animals from abuse without theft.

You might talk to various animal control officers, but they're understaffed. You might become a whistleblower if you can find a legal way for officials to investigate charges of animal cruelty. Something has to be done for the animals, but it has to be done legally with the cooperation of the FBI and other law enforcement professionals.

First, you never break a state law. There are ways to gain undercover footage without breaking any new or older laws. But first, if you speak to the FBI on how they'd interpret your reporting, it might help.

Second, the FBI doesn't have the money or time to investigate a lot of activists with claims of cruelty. You could talk to law students and their professors. Or you could appeal to the California or other state legislatures.

Apparently senators don't like you to photograph, audio, or video record farm operations. For example, Florida state Sen. Jim Norman has already reintroduced his bill, SB1184, for 2012, which is more of an omnibus bill but still contains the prohibitions against recording farm operations. So don't record farm operations.

Your first step is don't trespass. You can research the facts without trespassing on someone's factory farm. Don't vandalize. You know you may be convicted of terrorism if you break the law.

If you talk to law students, they'll find dozens of laws for you to read that will be used against you if you trespass, record, or vandalize property. Right now the FBI is conditioned against environmental groups and tends to label them as terrorist organizations at different time periods.

There are environmental groups who investigate abuse, such as the Humane Society, Mercy for Animals and PETA. Find out which ones are "labeled" as terrorist groups or as activist groups by the FBI. That way, at least you'll know whether the FBI is against you or your group from the start.

This information applies to writers, reporters, and other journalists as well as citizen journalists and animal rights activists. Please be aware of what laws are stacked against you and the attitudes of the FBI toward certain animal rights groups still labeled or formerly labeled as terrorists. See, USDA Classifies PETA As A Terrorist Threat. Also see, Are PETA pie throwers terrorists?

Whether PETA is or is no longer classified as a "terrorist" organization, the fact is that PETA has achieved results in the field of animal rights. See, EPA Pledges to Replace the Use of Animals in Massive Chemical-Screening Program, Sparing 3 Million Animals. And check out, University of Michigan Ends Use of Cats in Intubation Training.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 3 million members and supporters, according to its website. PETA focuses its attention on the four areas in which the largest numbers of animals suffer the most intensely for the longest periods of time: on factory farms, in the clothing trade, in laboratories, and in the entertainment industry.

The organization also works on a variety of other issues, including the cruel killing of beavers, birds, and other "pests" as well as cruelty to domesticated animals. PETA works through public education, cruelty investigations, research, animal rescue, legislation, special events, celebrity involvement, and protest campaigns.

So do your research and keep within the law to help improve the life quality of animals, plants, and people. Check out, High School Will Never Again Host a Donkey Basketball Game. See, The California Department of Food and Agriculture Will Not Oppose PETA's Public Records Act Claim. Check out some of the successes which include, Nebraska Egg Factory Farms' Practice of Grinding Unwanted Hens to Death Ends and USDA-FSIS Investigates a Texas Slaughterhouse and Initiates a 'Humane Handling-Related Enforcement Action'. Also see, Why does PETA sometimes use nudity in its campaigns? And see, What’s wrong with wearing wool?