This fall, the Supreme Court will review a case where the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act was struck down.
In 2005 Robert J. Stevens (this guy is super gross) was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison for creating and selling videos which depicted dog fights and dogs brutally mauling and killing helpless animals. Last year the Pennsylvania court of appeals overturned his conviction on the grounds that it violated his First Amendment right to free speech.
The Depiction of Animal Cruelty law was put into effect in 1999 in part because of the Humane Society of the United States' investigation into "crush videos", which depict scantily-clad women stomping on small animals such as kittens, puppies and rabbits with their bare feet or in high heels, killing them in a most gruesome manner. The videos are geared toward people with a sexual fetish for such cruelty.
The DAC law makes it illegal to produce, create, sell or purchase anything that portrays animal cruelty for no valuable purpose.
Since the overturning of the DAC law, "crush videos" are resurfacing in popularity and production, leading to thousands of helpless animals losing their lives.
I really hope the DAC law is re-instated. I can't think of a good reason why people should be allowed to profit from depictions of animal cruelty when all 50 states uphold some type of anti-cruelty law. And if you are creating, selling, or buying these types of videos you are either directly or indirectly participating in the illegal acts that had to take place to make them.
It's a fact that animal cruelty can often lead to cruelty toward humans. Why should these videos, which serve no purpose other than to excite & entertain disturbed people, be allowed to flourish in our society? Don't we have enough violence without protecting more needless cruelty?
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i feel like we should go after the actual crime -- animal cruelty -- rather than just the depictions.
ReplyDeleteI agree. The problem with legalizing the selling of the depictions is that someone had to perpetrate the crime to obtain them in the first place, so they profit from the crime itself.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it fuels the sickness in people that enables them to do such horrible things. There's proof that animal cruelty has a high propensity to lead to violence toward humans, too.
And by "obtain" I meant "create" :)
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