Today, President Barack Obama signed the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act of 2010 into law which now criminalizes the creation, sale, distribution, advertising, marketing and exchange of animal crush videos.
The bill was introduced by Oregon's Senator Jeff Merkley with Senators John Kyl (R-AZ) and Richard Burr (R-NC). The legislation was unanimously passed by the Senate last month.
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals expressed their thanks to the President. Dr. Randall Lockwood, senior vice president of ASPCA Forensic Sciences and Anti-Cruelty Projects helped to draft the amicus brief on the Supreme Court case and works to increase public knowledge about the relationship between animal abuse and other forms of violence.
"The ASPCA has long recognized the dangerous potential for animal cruelty to lead to more serious crimes. By banning crush videos, our federal government is potentially helping to protect the community from other serious crimes and sending a clear message to individuals seeking to profit from the suffering of these animals. This law protects both animals and free speech by focusing specifically on crush videos, which clearly have no place in our society," stated Dr. Lockwood in a statement from the ASPCA.
The original bill drafted in 1999 was overturned by the Supreme Court because of its vagueness. The penalty for violating the law carries up to seven years in prison.
Comments
Bless his ever-lov'n Democratic heart. And give BO a big hug for me.
I have to say, I have not been a fan of Obama but I do want to say thank you for this. Please keep it up Mr. President. Let's not stop with this. Make animal cruelty punishments A LOT more severe! Thank you Obama.
Add the end of the transport American horses for slaughter and the roundups of America's protected wild horses and burros which includes the inhumane treatment, separation of families, loss of life and stampeding little babies to their deaths, their lifelong imprisonment in undisclosed government holding facilities (NOW at over 42,000) and the possibility of additional corruption and them being slipped off to slaughter ("born in heaven and die in hell") This should be one of your top list of priorities, President Obama....
Then and only them will I say, I am glad I voted for you!
You still remain silent while your appointees, Ken Salazar and Bob Abbey and the contractors are lying and killing and have NO scientific evidence of anything they say. Leave America's protected wild horses free to run on the land that was designated to them! All the oil in China, all the cattle corporations, all the mining operations, all to destroy our public lands, is not worth the mass removal or our Country's horses whose heritage goes back before man walked on this continent and on whose back's this Country was built.
Not until this corrupt destruction is stopped, will I ever have any thanks addressed to your administration, for you know what is going on and why!!! This oppression and unlawful destruction needs to end immediately... not more millions of dollars to be spent removing and obliterating our self sustaining wild life, that are supposedly protected by Law!
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I am furious and utterly ashamed that your administration has put forth an escalated war against these animals and participated in a blatant denial of our voices for it to STOP!!! And to invest some of these millions of tax dollars in a unbiased scientific study to back up your agency's unfounded claims and numbers simply pulled out of a cowboy hat.
It is sad when the public needs to take it's own government to court to try to stop something that is unlawful and not in the interest of the citizens who elected this administration. And to have to spend individual's and organization's money to fight corruption and money to save lives that should have been left alone where they were heathy and free.
This is beyond very, very sad....
Award winning investigative journalist George Knapp tells it like it is and there is more to learn of what is going on and why...
PART ONE: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/mustangconspiracy/
PART TWO: Part 2 in HD: Smoking gun evidence involves British Petroleum (BP)
Also, stay tuned to CNN Jan. 3 or 4th for the beginning of a 4-Part series on the roundups of America's horses.
Good move, but whether this law has any practical impact remains to be seen, see First Amendment Law Prof Blog
http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/firstamendment/2010/11/senate-approves-...
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