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April 2024 Animal Law Updates: Investigations and the Law

Author Bio

Jareb Gleckel received his J.D. magna cum laude from Cornell Law School and his B.A.... Read More

In April, one of the most impactful investigators in the Animal rights world retired from investigating. Lance is the reason for, among many other things, this (non-graphic) clip exposing the truth about free range straight from a Tyson employee, and major press like this New York Times story about Holden Farms and its farrowing crates for pigs.

Source: Animal Outlook/YouTube

I’ve discussed, in prior columns, the role that lawyers play on the “front end” of investigations, specifically by challenging “ag-gag” laws — laws that “gag” investigatory activity by making it unlawful. This role is, in my opinion, one of the most important roles of lawyers in the movement: as recently as April 24, 2024, Animal Outlook and PETA filed a brief in the 9th Circuit challenging an Oregon law that impedes undercover work. Lawyers — like the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project at Denver Sturm College of Law — also provide representation for investigators. But Lance’s retirement, as well as the recent legal developments enabled by his investigations, highlight the back-end of investigations: their role in generating enforcement actions and civil lawsuits, and ultimately shaping public opinion and fomenting legal change.

The Legal Impact of Investigations

Our investigations both directly drive change — like in the case of exposing the use of “nose bones,” after which Tyson and other major companies ended the cruel practice — and build a damning record against the industry, showing how unavoidably cruel it is. In that way, they powerfully drive the vegan movement into the mainstream to dismantle animal agriculture.

Cheryl Leahy, Executive Director, Animal Outlook.

The Jungle, a 1906 bestseller, is based on Upton Sinclair’s seven weeks among immigrant workers in packing plants. It’s famous for exposing the disturbing conditions at stockyards and slaughterhouses. Sinclair’s summary of his own work is equally famous: “I aimed at the public’s heart,” he said, “and by accident I hit it in the stomach.” But Sinclair’s investigation also had legal impacts: The Jungle is largely credited with influencing the establishment of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. Over a century later, investigation footage of gestation crates has contributed to legislative reforms like California’s Prop 12 and Massachusetts Question 3, which ban gestation crates for breeding sows and the sale of pork derived from animals in these conditions. Investigations also continue to uncover criminal conduct and form the basis of civil lawsuits.

Uncovering Criminal Conduct

Contrary to popular belief, agricultural operations — their owners, managers, and even the companies themselves — can be convicted of crimes for harming animals. Historically, charges were (controversially) brought against individual workers: on the one hand, these workers treated animals cruelly, sometimes heinously. On the other hand, low-level workers often suffer themselves at the hands of an industry that exploits laborers, and the thought of sending authorities after them is unbecoming. Either way charges against individual workers can send the message that cruelty to animals is only the result of a few bad acts by a few bad apples — when, instead, it’s an entire industry that’s inherently cruel.

Investigations inside factory farms and slaughterhouses give us a glimpse into what life is really like for farmed animals. It’s never easy to witness an animal in pain – to see newborn piglets having their tails cut off, disorientated calves separated from their mothers, and fish suffocating in their final moments of life – but we have a duty to learn of the devastation taking place on our doorsteps and to put a stop to this needless suffering. Most people would boycott animal products in a heartbeat if they knew the truth.

Abigail Penny, Executive Director, Animal Equality UK

Charges against owners and managers of facilities show that the cruelty is systemic, and is inherent in the way agricultural companies operate. Investigations can bring about these charges. In 2022, for example, the owner of Bravo Packing (not Bravo Pet Food), a slaughterhouse whose pet food production was shut down for unsanitary conditions, entered a guilty plea based on evidence of mistreatment of animals. Lance’s final investigation into a Tyson contract grower also resulted in charges against the owner and manager of that facility.

The Basis of Civil Lawsuits

Despite evidence of criminal behavior, prosecutors will not always charge a corporation, or even the owner of a corporation, with a crime. However, investigations can still have a legal impact through civil litigation. An HSUS case against Hallmark based on 2008 investigation footage led to a $497 million judgment (and eventually a multi-million-dollar settlement) against the company. HSUS brought its case under a statute called the False Claims Act, which allows a private party to sue — on the government’s behalf — a person or company that made false claims to the government. Hallmark, which used to be one of the biggest suppliers of ground beef to the National School Lunch Program, and which made false claims about its treatment of animals (among other things) went out of business as a result of the lawsuit. Animal Outlook and Public Justice, following Animal Outlook’s 2017 investigation of the largest U.S. lamb slaughterhouse, Superior Farms, likewise used the False Claims Act to reach a groundbreaking settlement setting standards for oversight and enforcement. (You can read more about that investigation, conducted by Animal Outlook’s current Director of Investigations, Scott David, in the New York Times.) And ALDF recently brought a case under the False Claims Act against Holden Farms . . . based on Lance’s (graphic) investigation footage.

As a final note: this is a legal column, so it focuses on legal impact. It says nothing of the impact on the public, like the Tyson grower investigation which reached, in total, over 550 million consumers through print and online media. It also says nothing of the on-the-ground impact investigators can have on animals.

Lance is a service-connected veteran, so he’s as tough as people come. But in videos, you can see him lifting small chicks to water lines so they can drink. Industry, oftentimes, raises these lines as the majority of animals grow, leaving the smaller and slower-growing animals to jump helplessly to reach them and, when unsuccessful, to die of dehydration. “I want them to experience love in their lives, even if it’s only a few seconds of compassion,” he says. “It’s the least I can do for them, at least until the world changes and people learn to be better.”

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