Challenging Kansas’s Ag-Gag Law
Animal Legal Defense Fund et. al. v. Kelly et. al.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund filed a lawsuit in Kansas challenging the constitutionality of the state’s Ag-Gag law, which makes it a crime to document animal cruelty at factory farms and slaughterhouses.
Next Step
Case Closed
On December 5, 2018, The Animal Legal Defense Fund — with the Center for Food Safety, Public Justice, and Kansas-area farmed animal organizations, Shy 38, Inc., and Hope Sanctuary — filed a lawsuit in Kansas challenging the constitutionality of the state’s Ag-Gag law, which makes it a crime to document animal cruelty at factory farms and slaughterhouses.
Who is being sued, why, and under what law? The lawsuit was brought against Kansas’s governor and attorney general, on the grounds that the Ag-Gag law violates the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Enacted in 1990, the Kansas Ag-Gag law is the oldest such law in the United States, and has deterred undercover investigations at animal facilities, including factory farms, for nearly three decades.
What court is the lawsuit filed in? The United States District Court for the District of Kansas.
No federal laws govern how farmed animals are raised and most state cruelty laws exempt standard agricultural practices.
Why this case is important: Kansas is a major producer of cows, pigs, and other animals raised for human consumption. Virtually all of these animals are raised in inhumane Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO), also known as factory farms, where animals undergo routine mutilations and intensive confinement before they are trucked to slaughter.
Kansas’s Ag-Gag law has prevented whistleblowers from investigating the cruel conditions that millions of animals endure. Recent undercover investigations at animal agriculture facilities outside Kansas have uncovered abusive and illegal treatment of animals, as well as violations of laws intended to protect the safety of workers and the general public.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund led coalitions that successfully struck down significant parts of Ag-Gag laws in Utah and Idaho. We continue to challenge Ag-Gag laws in the states where they are still in effect.
Stop Ag-Gag Laws
Undercover investigations and whistleblowers have exposed some of the worst aspects of factory farming, but Ag-Gag laws punish people who speak out about cruelty in animal agriculture. Voice your opposition.
Recent News
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Iowa: Ask Governor Reynolds to Veto the Ag-Gag Bill
HF 775 is aimed at criminalizing whistleblowing and undercover investigations in agricultural facilities, thus “gagging” activists and others who expose animal abuse in factory farms and slaughterhouses.April 12, 2021 Action Alert -
Court Allows Lawsuit Against FDA to Proceed
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of the Animal Legal Defense Fund and its co-plaintiffs, denying an attempt by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to dismiss a lawsuit against the agency.February 23, 2021 Press Release -
New White Paper Offers Policy Recommendations to Combat Zoonotic Diseases and Pandemic Risk from Factory Farming
The Animal Legal Defense Fund released the second in a series of white papers — COVID-19 and Factory Farming —providing policy recommendations to address industrial animal agriculture’s role in our heightened risk for zoonotic diseases outbreaks, like COVID-19, and its potential to be the source of the next global pandemic.November 19, 2020 Press Release
Related Cases
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Challenging Idaho’s Ag-Gag Law
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Challenging Iowa’s Ag-Gag Law
Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Kimberly K. Reynolds
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Challenging Utah’s Ag-Gag Law
Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Gary Herbert
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See MoreStop Ag-Gag Laws
Undercover investigations and whistleblowers have exposed some of the worst aspects of factory farming, but Ag-Gag laws punish people who speak out about cruelty in animal agriculture. Voice your opposition.