Senate Votes to Ban Crush Videos
V
ideos that show women killing small animals, mostly with their stiletto heels or bare feet, will be banned under a new law that cleared the Senate on Friday and is headed to President Obama for his signature.
Earlier in the week, the House voted to ban these videos that depict the abuse and killing of animals.
Congress had passed similar legislation back in 1999, but earlier this year the Supreme Court struck it down, saying the law was too broadly written and violated the First Amendment.
The new bill makes it a crime to sell or distribute videos that show animals being burned, drowned, suffocated or impaled.
According to the Humane Society of the United States, animal crush videos appeal to sexual deviants who get a thrill out of seeing this kind of torture and slow death being drawn out for minutes or even hours.
“Animal torture videos are barbaric and have no place in a civilized society,” said Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), one of the House sponsors. “By promising to lock up the people who produce and distribute these videos we can work to put a halt to this horrendous practice.”
One of the objections voiced by the Supreme Court to the earlier legislation was that it might equally be applied to videos of hunting, trapping and fishing. The new legislation allows people to make and sell videos of that kind.
Related Story:
House Crushes Crush Videos