There’s a fantastic column in the Chattanooga Times Free Press today about ag-gag laws and my lecture this evening. David Cook sums it up in the first line as “The American animal industry is scared. Scared that what they’re trying desperately to hide will somehow be revealed.” Here’s an excerpt:
Potter, a journalist from Washington D.C., is coming to Chattanooga today to speak about some of our most urgent issues: ethics, animals, First Amendment rights and democracy. His free talk — “The Criminalization of Dissent” — is being sponsored by several social justice and animal welfare groups and begins at 6 p.m. on the Fourth Floor of the Chattanooga Public Library.
“In terms of an entire industry that is raising and killing upward of 9 billion animals a year, there is virtually no oversight and no regulation,” said Potter, a 2014 TED Fellow…
“We all want to think we’re part of a culture that values justice and fairness,” Potter said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetarian or environmentalist, these things we’re talking about cut to the heart of fairness in our legal system, accountability and people in power.”