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Posted January 8, 2015
Four Californians have been charged with violating Utah’s “ag-gag” law when they took pictures of agricultural buildings last September, according to an All Gov article available here. The Spectrum also published an article available hereand The Salt lake Tribune here.
Utah is one of the half-dozen states to ban photographing agricultural operations, including the mistreatment of animals.
Amy Meyer was the first person to be arrested and charged in February 2013 for violating the law by using videotaping workers pushing an injured or ill cow with a bulldozer at a slaughterhouse in Draper, according to The Spectrum.
The charges against Meyer were dropped three months later after she presented evidence that she was on public property during the filming.
According to the attorney, T. Matthew Phillips, representing the four defendants, Robert Penney, 64; Sarah Jane Hardt, 43; Harold Weiss, 34; and Bryan Monell, 50, were standing on public property, photographing the buildings at Circle Four and “wanted to document the ‘trail of tears,’ if you will, from Utah to the slaughterhouse in Los Angeles,” said Phillips. “They are standing on the roadside and they took some pictures of the farm.”
Hardt is a professional photographer, but she declined to comment on any of the photos taken, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Deputies from the Beaver County and Iron County sheriff’s offices detained the group for five hours, but they were never arrested, only cited.
“All of us looked at each other and said, ‘What is this?’” she said. “Interfering with agriculture? None of us knew what it was. When we get back to L.A., that’s when [Phillips] tells us, ‘That’s ag gag.’”
In 2013, an ag-gag bill failed in California, according to All Gov.
Update Jan 14: Utah prosecutors are dropping the charges against all four activists, according to The Washington Times.
Each activist still faces one misdemeanor count of criminal trespass, said Iron County Attorney Scott Garrett. The charges were dropped because officials from Utah’s Circle Four Farms didn’t want to pursue them, said Garrett.
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