Humane animal treatment shouldn't just be the priority of vegetarians and animal-rights groups. It should be all of ours, including livestock industry heads, state lawmakers, officials at the Iowa State Fair and patrons who visit and fawn over the nursing newborn piglets.

Yes, there's the paradox that those cute, innocent creatures we coo over are being raised to someday be food. But even the pork industry has guidelines for how to treat pigs during their lifetimes to minimize their pain and stress. So, when concerned citizen Wheaten Mather saw the potential abuse of a pig at the fair, he was right to try and call officials' attention to it. Yet the fair responded by banning him for life.

As my colleague Lee Rood, the Readers’ Watchdog columnist reported, Mather witnessed and videotaped a young pig handler who was trying to get the animal onto a trailer repeatedly strike its face with a whip as it squealed and recoiled. The pig's face was covered with red marks. The Iowa State Fair describes itself as "the true heartbeat of the Midwest." But watching the helpless creature try to avoid the blows is true heartbreak. The pork industry's guidelines oppose striking pigs in the face and urge handlers to minimize the animal's fear of being loaded, with encouragement.

Accounts of how Mather went about reporting the incident suggest he was somewhat agitated and may have lacked tact, but who wouldn't be upset after seeing that? He asked a fair worker whom to report it to and was referred to a livestock barn superintendent, who seemed unconcerned. That prompted Mather, by his own account, to swear and show frustration. Back at the fair nine days later, he raised the matter with the fair's CEO and Manager Gary Slater and Marketing Director Mindy Williamson whom he saw giving an interview. He told Rood he urged Slater to sit down with him and watch his video and asked for reassurances against future mistreatment. He said Slater replied that it was a matter for police animal cruelty officials and that Mather should have addressed it earlier with the boy's family, or a club like 4H or FFA.

Rood tried unsuccessfully to get an interview with Slater. Williamson told me she and Slater tried to explain the different processes and protocols to Mather, but he was "very insistent and very demanding." According to her, he threatened to make his video go viral if they didn't change their practices. Asked if they watched the video, she said no, "He did not share the video with us."

"His approach left us uneasy and we called public safety," she said.

Did they really feel unsafe or were they more concerned with silencing a whistle-blower? Unfortunately there is precedent for that in Iowa's agriculture industry. The governor and Legislature have already codified such shoot-the-messenger responses into state law to prevent unflattering images and reports leaking out of Iowa's livestock confinements. A so-called ag-gag law passed in March criminalizes someone who deceptively gains access to an agricultural production facility to harm the business. A previous version was struck down as unconstitutional by a federal court. The ASPCA has fought such bills in more than 20 states for undermining animal welfare, food safety, workers' rights, environmental protection and free speech.

Iowa's Good Samaritan Immunity Law, on the other hand, appropriately saves people's lives by allowing someone who sees another person at risk from a drug overdose to report it without being subject to prosecution.

State Fair Police Cmdr. Doug Phillips said the officer who responded decided to eject Mather permanently in response to Williamson's and Slater's claims he had been aggressive with them, which Mather has denied being. Phillips said Mather also threatened the careers of the officers. Again, it sounds as if those "threats" were more annoying than fear-inducing, and the officer overreacted.

Phillips told me Mather should have intervened with the boy when he saw the pig being hit, or immediately talked to fair police, who investigate complaints from the Animal Rescue League and would have done so in this case. But Mather had no way of knowing that, and it would be inappropriate for a passerby to confront an animal handler directly. The National Pork Board encourages people to report abuse or neglect at livestock facilities.

Phillips said a livestock agent who witnessed the boy's interaction with the pig after Mather was done filming intervened by guiding the pig back into the barn, and later onto a ramp to load onto the vehicle. The fair's competitive events department and the head of Future Farmers of America have since spoken to the family to remind them of its code of ethics and handling protocols, according to Williamson.

Fair officials subsequently watched the video, which Mather posted on facebook. Though Williamson told me she wasn't expert enough to judge what it shows, she told Rood they plan to follow up by putting up signs in barns encouraging people to call if they see abuse. She said the pig has been checked by the state veterinarian's office and seems in good condition. All of those responses suggest officials were rightfully concerned by what they saw, and that it's a good thing Mather recorded it and tried to get someone's attention.

Instead of being barred for life from the fair, he should have been thanked.