Crush videos are animal torture videos showing the intentional act of crushing, burning, drowning, suffocating and impaling of puppies, kittens, monkeys, goats and other animals for the titillation of viewers as depicted in the photographs. Most videos contain girls or women in stillettos crushing an animal to death or using the heel to “drill” into the animal’s eye socket. As stated others methods are used to kill the innocent victims.
They were popular back in 1990. A law had been passed in 1999 banning the creation, sale and possession for interstate or foreign commerce of depictions of illegal and intentional maiming, mutilating, torture, wounding or killing of a living animal. The market for these videos disappeared after this law went into effect according to the HSUS.
That law was declared unconstitutional in 2008.
Crush videos have now made a comeback online. You can purchase videos varying in price from $20.00 to $100.00. According to the HSUS, each of the videos contain multiple animals which means that hundreds of animals have been tortured and crushed to death.
And how ironic is that , once again, hurting and killing animals to make a profit.
What a sick world in which you and I live. What is worse than making these videos are the demented people who purchase and view these videos. For what reason would anyone find pleasure in doing so? That is how sick we are as a society!
BUT, there is something we can do about this. Last week, the House of Representatives passed legislation, H.R. 5566. It is known as the Crush Act. The vote was 416 to 3. Although this is an astounding vote, why would three of our legislators vote against this bill?
This is where we can help. A vote is expected to come up in the Senate and the Senators need to hear our voices to speak loud and clear against some of the most horrific crimes perpetrated against innocent animals.
According to the American Anti-Vivisection Society, in April of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that a 1999 law banning depictions of animal cruelty was unconstitutional. The law’s intent was to ban shocking ‘crush videos’ by making it a crime to traffic in any images where animals are “intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed.” However, the law was recently used to convict Robert Stevens for selling dog fight videos. Stevens brought his case to the Supreme Court, and the Court ruled the law was too broad in scope and violated First Amendment rights to free speech.
Swiftly after the Court’s decision, Representative Elton Gallegly (R-CA) introduced a bill that amends the original law, giving it a narrower focus that will resist any court challenges. H.R. 5566 still prohibits the sale and marketing of any depictions of animals being “crushed, burned, drowned, or impaled,” protecting animals from the cruelty involved in making these films.
After a successful vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, this bill is on its way to the U.S. Senate. Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Richard Burr (R-NC) plan to introduce a companion bill soon. It is urgent that this bill be passed. Since the original law was passed over 10 years ago, the niche market has begun to fade away, and the immediate acceptance of the bill will ensure that the disgusting industry is not revitalized.
What You Can Do:
Please contact your Senators and ask them to support legislation banning crush videos. Ask them to join as original co-sponsors to the crush video bill that Senators Kyl, Merkley, and Burr will soon introduce.
We need to stop this animal torture. I can’t believe it exists in this day and age but it does. But we can stop it! I urge you to contact your Senators today. I have already done so.
I can’t begin to express the outrage I have over these videos and I hope you feel the same. The people who commit these crimes against these animals (they should be arrested and serve time in jail) are so demented to tie a dog’s front legs behind his back while his mouth is tied shut and then poke a sharp heel through a the dog’s eye. That image is burned into my mind as I hope it is into yours.
If only we lived in during the times of an “eye for an eye”. I would do it in a heartbeat. But we must let the law help us to stop this heinous activity. PLEASE, contact your Senators today!