{"id":1713,"date":"2014-07-23T03:27:07","date_gmt":"2014-07-23T08:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/?p=1713"},"modified":"2026-04-17T15:32:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T20:32:05","slug":"what-are-ag-gag-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2014\/07\/23\/what-are-ag-gag-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are &#8220;Ag-Gag&#8221; Laws?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, so-called &#8220;ag-gag&#8221; laws (often more formally titled as agricultural protection statutes)\u00a0have frequently been in the news across the country.\u00a0 Progressive Cattlemen magazine asked me to write an article explaining exactly what these laws are and how they work.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2014\/06\/AQHA.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1558 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2014\/06\/AQHA-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"AQHA\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2014\/06\/AQHA-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/files\/2014\/06\/AQHA.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Although about\u00a0half of U.S. states have attempted to pass &#8220;ag gag&#8221; laws, only seven have been successful.\u00a0 Details of the laws vary across the seven states in which they have been adopted (North Dakota, Montana, Kansas, Utah, Iowa, Missouri, and Idaho), their general purpose is to prohibit a person from taking unauthorized photography or videos or from falsely obtaining access to an agricultural operation.\u00a0 There are currently lawsuits pending challenging the constitutionality of these laws in Utah and Idaho.\u00a0 Many agricultural organizations and producers in favor of the laws say that they are aimed at protecting their operations from intruders.\u00a0 On the other hand, many animal rights groups and investigative journalists oppose the laws claiming that they violate free speech and place animals at a higher risk of being abused.<\/p>\n<p>Learn more in my article, available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.progressivecattle.com\/news\/in-the-news\/6311-what-are-ag-gag-laws\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, so-called &#8220;ag-gag&#8221; laws (often more formally titled as agricultural protection statutes)\u00a0have frequently been in the news across the country.\u00a0 Progressive Cattlemen magazine asked me to write an article explaining exactly what these laws are and how they work. Although about\u00a0half of U.S. states have attempted to pass &#8220;ag gag&#8221; laws, only seven have been successful.\u00a0 Details of the laws vary across the seven states in which they have been adopted (North Dakota, Montana, Kansas, Utah, Iowa, Missouri, and Idaho), their general purpose is to prohibit a person&#8230; <span class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2014\/07\/23\/what-are-ag-gag-laws\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2444,"featured_media":1558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ag-gag-statutes"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Are &quot;Ag-Gag&quot; Laws? - Texas Agriculture Law<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/agrilife.org\/texasaglaw\/2014\/07\/23\/what-are-ag-gag-laws\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Are &quot;Ag-Gag&quot; Laws? - Texas Agriculture Law\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently, so-called &#8220;ag-gag&#8221; laws (often more formally titled as agricultural protection statutes)\u00a0have frequently been in the news across the country.\u00a0 Progressive Cattlemen magazine asked me to write an article explaining exactly what these laws are and how they work. Although about\u00a0half of U.S. states have attempted to pass &#8220;ag gag&#8221; laws, only seven have been successful.\u00a0 Details of the laws vary across the seven states in which they have been adopted (North Dakota, Montana, Kansas, Utah, Iowa, Missouri, and Idaho), their general purpose is to prohibit a person... 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