Carrie Underwood took to Twitter recently to vent her frustration over a new law called the “ag-gag” bill–which involves admission of secret videotaping of factory farms into animal abuse claims–and her posts quickly drew the attention of Tennessee lawmakers.
Underwood, a big proponent for animal rights, says she doesn’t agree with the law, which requires anyone submitting video footage of animal abuse to do so within 48 hours. Activists say two days just isn’t long enough and scares some people away from turning in the perpetrators.
“Shame on TN lawmakers for passing the Ag Gag bill,” the singer tweeted. “If Gov. Bill Haslam signs this, he needs to expect me at his front door. Who’s with me?”
That post, which reached her nearly 1.5 million followers, also drew the attention of Tennessee Rep. Andy Holt, who responded by saying, “I would say that if Carrie Underwood will stick to singing, I’ll stick to lawmaking.”
Underwood didn’t let that one slide by, and instead responded with a new tweet:
I should stick to singing? Wow…sorry, I’m just a tax paying citizen concerned for the safety of my family. #NoAgGag wsmv.com/story/22027811…
— Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) April 20, 2013
However, Holt says the intention of the bill is to bring animal abuse to light as quickly as possible.
“I think what we need to do is make sure and recognize that if animals are being abused it needs to come to justice, and it needs to come to justice quickly,” Holt said. “No matter what anybody tells you. That’s the intention of this legislation.”