US Supreme Court to Hear "Crush Video" Case

This fall the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in a major case involving animal cruelty. The case concerns infamous dogfighting videographer Robert Stevens, who was convicted by a Pennsylvania jury of violating a 1999 federal law banning the commercial sale of videos depicting extreme and illegal acts of animal cruelty.

The Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act was prompted in part by an Humane Society of the United States investigation that uncovered an underground subculture of “animal crush” videos, where scantily clad women, often in high-heeled shoes, would impale and crush to death puppies, kittens and other small animals, catering to those with a sexual fetish for this aberrant behavior.

The challenged law in bans depictions of animal fighting and other extreme cruelty. At the same time The HSUS filed its brief, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and 25 other state Attorneys General filed a brief arguing in support of banning these gruesome depictions, which merit no protection under the First Amendment. The Washington Legal Foundation and Allied Educational Foundation also filed a concurring brief.

As explained in all of the briefs filed Monday, the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act criminalizes depictions of animal cruelty that have no significant redeeming political, social, or artistic value.

Source: HSUS