As McDonald's requires pork suppliers to stop raising sows in crates, Iowa Rep. Annette Sweeney pursues 'Ag-Gag' law to jail animal cruelty whistleblowers

Annette Sweeney,
Dist. 44, Iowa House

Running interference for factory farms which want to ensure that their institutionalized cruelty is never seen by the public at large and dismantling displays in the Iowa State Capitol that she doesn't agree with aren't GOP Rep. Anette Sweeney's only activities.
     Last year, she voted in favor of House Joint Resolution 6 to let voters amend Iowa's constitution to ban same sex marriage AND civil unions AND domestic partnerships. When Ms. Sweeney sets out to screw her gay constituents, she goes whole hog.

Following the lead of Burger King, Wendy's, Hardee's, Wolfgang Puck and Chipotle's, McDonald's has become the latest chain to require pork suppliers to stop confining pregnant sows for months in crates too small to turn around in. Chipotle's aired the following commercial during the recent Grammy Award broadcast.



The video below was made between April and June of 2011 by an undercover investigator from Mercy for Animals who documented the abusive treatment of pigs and piglets at Iowa Select Farms in Kamrar, IA. Iowa Select is the fourth-largest pork producer in the USA.

Caution: This is very difficult to watch. You may just want to read the following description, from About.com. Abuses documented by the investigator included:

• Mother sows confined to barren metal crates barely larger than their own bodies – unable to turn around or lie down comfortably for nearly their entire lives
• Workers ripping out the testicles of conscious piglets without the use of painkillers
• Piglets suffering with herniated intestines, due to botched castration
• Conscious piglets having their tails painfully sliced into and yanked off with dull clippers
• Large, open, pus-filled wounds and pressure sores
• Sick and injured pigs left to languish and slowly die without proper veterinary care
• Mother pigs – physically taxed from constant birthing – suffering from distended, inflamed, bleeding, and usually fatal uterine prolapses
• Management training workers to throw piglets across the room – comparing it to a "roller coaster ride"

Last year, the Iowa General Assembly passed "Ag-Gag" legislation introduced by Representative Annette Sweeney of Alden, that would send to jail anyone who surreptitiously documents the type of animal abuse contained in the following video, which exposes outrageously cruel treatment of pigs.

Learn why "Ag-Gag" laws, like the one introduced by GOP Rep. Sweeney, are dangerous for the environment, free speech, consumers, labor, and animals.



The following video, shot by WHO-TV at the Iowa State Capitol, shows Representative Sweeney dismantling an Iowa Voters for Companion Animals display showing a photo of alleged animal abuse. The group considered filing a formal complaint against Rep. Sweeney.

She picked up their literature and took down one of their posters. Members of the group later replaced the materials. Sweeney called the poster an inaccurate representation.

These organizations bankrolled Sweeney's election campaign in 2008 and 2010:

Sourcewatch details about Rep. Sweeney's shoot-the-messenger attempt to punish whistleblowers who expose factory farm animal cruelty in the Hawkeye State.

In Iowa, Senate File 431 [not, as of this writing, passed] and House File 589 prohibit anyone from producing, possessing, or distributing a record of a “visual or audio experience occurring at [an] animal facility.”^[3][4] The House bill, which passed March 17, 2011, was originally introduced by Rep Annette Sweeney.^[5][6] Sweeney operates a family cattle operation and she is the former Executive Director of the Iowa Angus Association.^[7][8] In the Senate, the bill was initially introduced by Tom Rielly.^[9] One of his top campaign contributors in 2008 was the Iowa Farm Bureau.^[10]