Ethics Scenario #112: Protect Our Animals of Harristown

112. An animal rights nonprofit organization, Protect Our Animals of Harristown, has received a tip that a poultry farm in nearby Johnson City is raising and slaughtering its poultry is cruel conditions. Its board decides to authorize a member of the staff to volunteer to try to infiltrate the poultry plant by getting a job there, and exposing the conditions by making videos and finding documents that may be incriminating. A staff member succeeds at this, posing as someone with little work experience when in fact the volunteer has a Ph.D. in biology from the state university. The operation is a success, and the local newspaper agrees to cover the story, using pictures and documents obtained by the volunteer.

a. Is the strategy of infiltrating the poultry farm for the purpose of uncovering illegal and or immoral treatment of animals ethical?