Black and white cows are stacked side-by-side in a wooden brown crated wagon on top of a truck.

Ag-gag laws are silencing the truth about farming practices, making it harder for journalists and activists to expose animal cruelty

This article contains graphic descriptions of animal cruelty.
Black and white cows are stacked side-by-side in a wooden brown crated wagon on top of a truck.
(Illustration by Apryl MacFarlane)

It’s a cold morning in Winnipeg, and Jessica Scott-Reid, a freelance journalist, stands outside a slaughterhouse with activist groups, waiting for the chicken trucks to arrive. When a truck arrives, the animals are concealed under tarps. Trucks avoid being documented by speeding past stop signs where activists are waiting, according to animal rights activist Danae Tonge.

Agricultural gag (ag-gag) laws in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island are making it difficult to capture this evidence. Manitoba’s Bill 62 makes it illegal to interact with animals during transportation, and Bill 63 removes warnings before charging someone trespassing. 

Photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur often sees thousands of chickens crammed into tiny cages stacked on top of each other. Many struggle to move, spread their wings and in some cases, breathe. They even stand on the bodies of their dead cagemates in an attempt to find relief from the harsh metal flooring that hurts their feet.

“For us, it’s quite awful to go to a farm,” McArthur says. “It often makes our eyes water when the farms are really dirty.”

“Farmers are not opening their doors to people with cameras,” McArthur says, which sometimes makes the animals’ arrival on trucks one of the few opportunities to document them without trespassing.

The industry is largely self regulated, and activists are limited in sharing abuse with the public or helping journalists, McArthur says. For example, the practice of “thumping” pigs—where piglets are grabbed by their back legs and slammed head first onto the ground and concussing them happens regularly because it is a “standard practice,” McArthur explains.

McArthur adds that current ag-gag laws in Ontario, P.E.I., and British Columbia have held her back from capturing evidence on farms.

“It’s a waste of everyone’s time to have these bills passed and then have to fight [every] couple [of] years to have them overturned,” McArthur says.

In 2019, Ontario’s Bill 156, the Security from Trespass and Protecting Food Safety Act, was introduced, making it illegal to go undercover to expose conditions inside farms. But, five years later, in April 2024, the court ruled that the law infringed on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and struck parts of it down.

With reduced accessibility to farms, animal rights aren’t the only issue being overlooked, says Josh Lynn, former CTV and CBC journalist, now working for Animal Justice.

“It’s not only a shame from an animal welfare perspective. These industries also rely heavily on temporary foreign workers and are fraught with labour issues,” says Lynn.

Is Agricultural Investigative Journalism Dead?

According to Lynn, investigative journalism on farms “does not” happen in the newsroom. Although laws in Manitoba don’t prohibit journalists from going undercover, it’s unlikely many do.

Today, organizations like Animal Justice or similar activist groups end up doing the on-the-ground investigative work, Lynn says. After the investigation, these groups find reporters at traditional news outlets willing to work with the material.

However, with the rise of ag-gag laws and other mainstream stories competing for attention, Scott-Reid says it’s harder to carve out space in the media. Chad Derrick, who worked as one of the producers for CTV’s investigative unit W5,  says investigations take months to complete, and the added layer of ag-gag laws makes the work even more difficult. Resource demands around farm and animal rights investigations, coupled with difficulties working around ag-gag laws, make it even harder when competing with other stories that require fewer resources.

A row of cows are seen against a brown fence with a small figure staring down.
(Illustration by Apryl MacFarlane) 

“It’s a travesty,” Derrick says, noting that because of limited resources, W5 can no longer contribute to the discourse like it once did unless they work with activists.

“Democracy depends on free, independent, and strong journalism,” says Derrick. When market conditions begin to limit the type of journalism being produced, “we’re going to be poorer for it,” he adds.

Powerful interests, like governments and corporations, get more room to act without accountability and can “behave with impunity,” says Derrick.

Do We Really Want to Know?

Scott-Reid says, “Most people don’t want to know.” Research published at the University of Saskatchewan in 2019 found that many consumers might not realize how little they actually know about food production. A 2024 report from The Canadian Centre for Food Integrity revealed that affordability is a high-level concern for Canadians, and one in five people have a negative impression of the food system.
Scott-Reid says that strong visual evidence, like undercover investigations on farms, makes a difference when convincing editors that the story is newsworthy. She recalls a 2020 investigation W5 did about an Ontario pig farm. “It was a powerful piece that reached many people,” says Scott-Reid.

McArthur agrees scientist’s research into how complex animals are in their thinking and feelings is important, yet photojournalists are critical in exposing how we treat animals.

“You can write about animal abuse, but when you see it, it’s visceral,” says Derrick.

Three cows are seen facing a reporter; he wears a yellow trench coat with light blue collars and a blue striped tie.
(Illustration by Apryl MacFarlane)

Whether the public wants to see it or not, Derrick agrees they should have a right to see what’s happening behind closed doors of these farms and institutions. It also allows more transparency and accountability.

Scott-Reid points out that the hog industry planned to phase out gestation crates for pigs by July 1, 2024, and that the National Farm Animal Care Council quietly allowed a five-year extension. With minimal media attention, no one held them accountable, she says. “You put that stuff in the paper, and people are pissed when they read that.”

“The more we provide the information and education to the public, the demand [for transparency] will grow,” says Scott-Reid.

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