{"id":622342,"date":"2026-08-05T19:38:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T19:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/622342\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:38:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T19:38:20","slug":"drones-regularly-capture-animal-cruelty-on-farms-a-trump-administration-rule-could-make-it-harder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/622342\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones regularly capture animal cruelty on farms. A Trump administration rule could make it harder."},"content":{"rendered":"

In February, an animal rights group flew a drone over a farm in California that raises calves destined for dairies and cattle ranches. Double D Dairies, the company that owns the farm, is linked to a prominent milk brand<\/a> that highlights its humane farming practices. But the drone documented a very different reality.<\/p>\n

In one part of the drone video, filmed by the group Direct Action Everywhere, employees can be seen kicking calves in the face. In another, they grind hot irons into calves\u2019 skulls, apparently without anesthetics, causing some to thrash and collapse (this procedure is done to prevent horn growth). Many calves were confined in tiny crates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ranch fired one of the employees after the investigation was published in the Los Angeles Times<\/a>. \u201cAnimal welfare and safety are incredibly important to us, and we have a zero-tolerance policy for any mistreatment,\u201d the owner wrote to the LA Times over email. When Vox reached the owner for an interview, he declined to comment.<\/p>\n

This sort of treatment of farmed animals, it turns out, is far from unusual. Many investigations into the milk<\/a> and beef industries<\/a> \u2014 along with other livestock sectors<\/a> \u2014 have uncovered similar abuses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But without drone footage, we probably wouldn\u2019t know about many of them. Drones flown by animal advocates have also captured enormous hog manure pits<\/a> overflowing during a hurricane, millions of egg-laying hens<\/a> culled amidst a bird flu outbreak, and a large egg farm that falsely claimed<\/a> to let its hens roam free when it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Over the past decade, as drones have become more affordable and easier to operate, they have become an essential \u2014 and impactful \u2014 tool<\/a> for exposing wrongdoing at the factory farms that collectively house billions of animals<\/a> in the US. But a recently proposed rule<\/a> by the Trump administration could cut off such drone-powered documentation, making the mere search for this type of animal cruelty illegal \u2014 and a huge, largely hidden industry all the more impenetrable. It could also take out eyes in the sky that add visibility into countless other massive industries and facilities across the US.<\/p>\n

The potential drone ban, briefly explained<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are more than 800,000 registered drones in the US, and whether people fly them for fun or for business, they have to follow some basic rules. They must keep them below 400 feet, for example, and avoid flying them near sensitive places like airports, military bases, and federal prisons.<\/p>\n

But the types of facilities that are off-limits for unauthorized drone flight could soon balloon to also include a much broader range of places, such as data centers, banks, and wastewater facilities, along with farms and slaughterhouses.<\/p>\n

A decade ago, Congress directed the Federal Aviation Administration to develop a system in which businesses deemed vital to US economic and national security could request drone flight restrictions over their property. And in May, the FAA proposed a new rule<\/a> to do just that.<\/p>\n

The rule would allow facilities in 16 vaguely defined sectors considered \u201ccritical infrastructure\u201d to request drone restrictions, including everything from \u201cfinancial services;\u201d to \u201cinformation technology;\u201d to \u201cfood and agriculture;\u201d and, broadly, \u201ccommercial.\u201d<\/p>\n

The likelihood of the proposed rule becoming regulation as it\u2019s currently drafted is unclear, though getting it done is a priority for the Trump administration. In June 2025, the White House issued an executive order<\/a> calling for the FAA to \u201cpromulgate a final rule as soon as practicable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meat industry says the potential new rule would help to protect America\u2019s food supply. They say that, in theory, drones could pose a biosecurity risk; they worry that drone operators could intentionally or inadvertently spread disease from farm to farm. Other objections include the possibility that these small aircraft might distress the animals or that people could spy on farms and gather proprietary information on farm technologies and production practices.<\/p>\n

But in its comments to the FAA lies another motivation from these industries: making it harder for activists to document what happens on farms.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A milk dispenser truck drives between some of the thousands of calf hutches at Turkey Creek Dairy in Arizona. Ram Daya\/We Animals<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Calves in tiny hutches at Grimmius Cattle Company in California. Direct Action Everywhere<\/p>\n

\u201cActivists have been deploying drones against animal agriculture, and against hog operations specifically, for well over a decade,\u201d the National Pork Producers Council wrote in a comment<\/a> to the FAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoultry operations, in particular, have been targeted by outside groups using drones to capture aerial footage for activist campaigns,\u201d the North Carolina Poultry Federation wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For decades, activists have gone undercover to work at farms and slaughterhouses and covertly film and expose animal cruelty on the ground. Their footage<\/a> has given millions of Americans a peek into the US meat, milk, and egg industries and has occasionally led to criminal animal cruelty charges, boycotts, and legislative action. Eventually, the industry fought back.<\/p>\n

In the 2010s, lawmakers allied with the meat industry proposed bills in around 25 states to make such investigations illegal, and several were passed into law. Critics called them \u201cag-gag\u201d laws<\/a>, describing how they gag activists and journalists from exposing animal cruelty and environmental pollution in the agricultural sector. And while a few were struck down in the courts as unconstitutional<\/a>, several still stand.<\/p>\n

In the wake of this investigative crackdown, animal advocates increasingly turned to drones over the past decade to conduct their investigations. It didn\u2019t take long for several heavily agricultural states \u2014 including Iowa<\/a>, Texas<\/a>, and Kentucky<\/a> \u2014 to restrict drone operators from flying over animal farms.<\/p>\n

Drone operator Jos\u00e9 Elias, who works for SingleStone Media<\/a> \u2014 a nonprofit that reports on how factory farms affect rural communities \u2014 told Vox that the FAA\u2019s proposed rule \u201callows a pathway for factory farms to continue to operate under secrecy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The proposed rule also worries Ram Daya, a freelance photojournalist with the group We Animals who, for years, has flown drones over factory farms to capture their enormous scale and intensive confinement of animals. Drone investigations, he said, have helped to expose the vast gulf between \u201chow [farms] portray themselves\u201d \u2014 often as humane and sustainable \u2014 \u201cversus how they actually operate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Fish in open-net pens at a fish farm in Greece. Essere Animali\/We Animals<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A truck filled with thousands of dead chickens who were recently killed at an Iowa egg farm. Direct Action Everywhere\/Open Wing Alliance\/We Animals<\/p>\n

If enacted, Daya said, the rule would \u201cfurther hinder the ability of the general public to understand what\u2019s going on in farms and animal industrial facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and others said this is part of a larger pattern by governments and industry to stifle farm investigations \u2014 a new iteration of \u201cag-gag\u201d laws.<\/p>\n

Beyond factory farms, of course, this proposed regulation could hamper important insights into a huge number of other industries, businesses, and government-run facilities. An environmental journalist, for example, used a drone outfitted with a thermal camera earlier this year to reveal that Elon Musk\u2019s xAI company was illegally using gas<\/a> to power one of its data centers.<\/p>\n

The broad scope of the proposed rule has caught the attention of journalistic and pro-democracy groups, as well, who\u2019ve argued in comments to the FAA that its rule could suppress newsgathering \u2014 and that the agency ought to better weigh First Amendment protections in its rulemaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs drones have become an essential tool of modern journalism, restrictions on their use increasingly limit the public\u2019s ability to receive information about newsworthy events,\u201d the National Press Photographers Association wrote<\/a>. \u201cThe FAA should therefore ensure that this rule protects against genuine security threats while preserving journalists\u2019 ability to use drones as a principal means of documenting matters of public concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group wants the FAA to require drone restriction applicants to be able to demonstrate a specific threat and explain why existing laws are insufficient to deter it; give the public a meaningful opportunity to comment on drone restriction applications; and establish a process for journalists and others to challenge them, among other changes.<\/p>\n

Most Americans will never set foot inside a factory farm or slaughterhouse. What little we know about these places has often come from investigators willing to document them. If that work becomes harder, it becomes harder to know where our food comes from. That\u2019s good news for an industry that has long fought against public scrutiny. And bad news for the rest of us \u2014 and the billions of animals involved.<\/p>\n

A version of this story originally appeared in the Future Perfect<\/strong><\/a> newsletter. Sign up here!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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Swati Sharma<\/p>\n

Vox Editor-in-Chief<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In February, an animal rights group flew a drone over a farm in California that raises calves destined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":622343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[269],"tags":[4232,18,440,4863,19,17,133],"class_list":["post-622342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-animal-welfare","tag-eire","tag-environment","tag-future-perfect","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117044597039323241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=622342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/622342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/622343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=622342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=622342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=622342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}