This year, four states — Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, and New York — have introduced bills meant to shut down undercover investigations exposing the abuses behind the closed doors of animal agribusiness. While these bills have slightly different language, each one, if passed, would criminalize the act of taking of a photograph or videotaping farmed animal facilities without explicit permission from the owner.
These “ag-gag” bills are not only an attempt by animal agribusiness to hide the cruel and inhumane conditions on factory farms and inside slaughterhouses, but they also infringe on the freedoms of animal advocates and the press. Here is the current status of each bill:
COK staff and volunteers were out on the streets of DC again to promote compassion: this time, in front of the Washington Nationals’ baseball stadium. On May 2, before the game started, we gave away over 100 free Field Roast vegan sausauge samples to veg-curious passersby! The response was wonderful: in addition to dozens of people asking where they could get veggie hot dogs and sausages, several people came back after tasting the Field Roast to tell us how much they liked it and to pick up more information about vegetarian eating to share with their friends and family. 
This summer, encouraging a friend or family member to choose vegan foods can be as easy as taking them to a movie, thanks to two new documentaries highlighting the benefits of vegan eating: 
For the third year in a row, Compassion Over Killing hosted VegWeek in April, a week-long celebration encouraging others to take 7-day veg pledge as a simple, yet effective way, to help protect their health, the planet and animals.