Cows, horses and pigs will remain animals in Arizona.
Gov. Doug Ducey vetoed a bill on Monday that exempted cows and other farm animals from the state's standard anti-cruelty legislation by classifying them as livestock, not animals.
"I know we all agree that animal cruelty is inexcusable, unacceptable and absolutely will not be tolerated," Ducey wrote in his veto letter. "When changing state laws relating to the safety and well-being of animals, we must ensure that all animals are protected, and mindful that increasing protections for one class of animals does not inadvertently undercut protections for another."
The bill, HB 2150, also left out crimes of abandonment and medical neglect for farm animals and was supported by much of the state's farming community. But national welfare groups and Arizona animal lovers roundly condemned it. Many have called it another arm of the ag-gag movement, which until now has focused on silencing whistleblowers from exposing conditions inside factory farms.
Anita Carswell, of In Defense of Animals, told The Dodo that it's increasingly hard to pass ag-gag legislation as public awareness grows, so factory farmers are turning to alternative legislation like HB 2150 to protect them from cruelty charges.
"[The sentiment is] 'If we can't make it illegal to photograph it, we can make it not so illegal to do it,'" she said.
The bill was Ducey's first veto in office.
