Media Alert: Bipartisan Lawmakers, Sheriff to Unveil GOP Leader’s Video Appeal to Drop ‘Ag-Gag’ Bill

Republican Strategist Mary Matalin Sends Graphic Exposé of Unlawful Cruelty With Personal Plea to Arizona GOP Leaders: Don’t Criminalize Investigations

For Immediate Release:
February 24, 2014

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Democratic senators, a GOP representative, and the Maricopa County sheriff will join a PETA vice president at the Arizona Capitol Museum on Tuesday to screen Mary Matalin’s video testimony against GOP-backed bills aiming to halt cruelty investigations on farms and in slaughterhouses. “You may be wondering what a meat-eating conservative Republican like me is doing in a PETA video,” Matalin says in the video, which shows scenes from PETA cases revealing unlawful cruelty that led to successful prosecutions.

Following the two-minute video, Rep. Michelle Ugenti (R-Scottsdale) will share her concerns about the House measure, and state Sens. Steve Farley and David Bradley (D-Tucson) will say why they intend to vote against the Senate version. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio will discuss how these bills would hamper law enforcement, and PETA Senior Vice President Dan Mathews will talk about how PETA works with whistleblowers and police across the country to halt illegal cruelty to animals.

The bills in question, House Bill 2587 and Senate Bill 1267, recently passed committee and may soon go to the floor for a vote. Matalin, who is just finishing a book tour for the latest bestselling political memoir that she co-wrote with her husband, James Carville, is a longtime PETA volunteer. Her appeals helped defeat similar “ag-gag” bills in 11 states last year, including Indiana, where the bill was deemed unconstitutional.