Whistleblower protections for those who document and report animal welfare violations are essential for enforcement. Ag-gag laws that criminalize such documentation represent a direct attack on welfare accountability.
Ag-gag laws are explicitly designed to prevent the evidence gathering that has driven most significant welfare accountability actions in agriculture. Criminalizing the documentation and reporting of animal welfare violations removes the primary mechanism through which welfare law violations come to light. Welfare advocates who defend and expand whistleblower protections are protecting the infrastructure of welfare enforcement itself. Legal challenges to ag-gag laws have succeeded in multiple states on constitutional grounds.