By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent

HARRISBURG — Former “The Price is Right” host Bob Barker is known for telling people to have their pets spayed and neutered.

But now he’s also weighing in on the goings-on of state legislatures.

Barker recently penned a letter to House Speaker Sam Smith, R-Jefferson, explaining his stance against House Bill 683 from state Rep. Gary Haluska, D-Cambria, which would prohibit certain interference with agricultural operations.

Specifically, the bill looks to ban undercover investigation of agricultural operations.

In the letter, Barker says undercover investigations from PETA exposed abuse at a West Virginia turkey facility, and their evidence eventually helped secure indictments of employees on animal cruelty charges.

“I am a lifelong Republican who feels that authorities should have access to everything that they need to enforce the law,” writes Barker. “Americans today want better treatment of animals killed for food, not for their legislators to hide illegal cruelty on farms behind locked doors.”

Haluska, in a memo to other lawmakers, said his legislation would help protect the agriculture industry, which is the state’s largest economy and essential to rural economies.

“My proposed bill would seek to prohibit the recording of images or sound from an agricultural operation without the consent of the farmer or operator,” Haluska wrote. “It would also prohibit access to agricultural operations under false pretenses or from obtaining employment with the intent of recording images or sound from an agricultural operation.”

Such interference, under Haluska’s bill, would be punishable as a third-degree felony.

A similar bill was proposed but not passed in Wyoming earlier this year, according to PETA.

Contact Melissa Daniels at melissa@paindependent.com