US Friends, Ask Your Senators to Crush Cruelty! Anti-Crush Vid Bill Goes to Senate

Immediate, please sign and send automatic letter HERE

From AAVS

Thanks to your letters, the U.S. House of Representatives recently passed H.R. 5566, also known as the Crush Act, by an astounding vote of 416 to 3. This bill aims to wipe out an industry that profits from the maiming and killing of small animals in sexual fetish videos. Now, the bill is expected to come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. We need your help to make it pass!

As AAVS supporters may know, this spring, 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.

Immediate, please sign and send automatic letter HERE

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