May 20, 2010

A month ago, The Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society Legislative Fund urged Congress to pass H.R. 5092.  This bill would provide law enforcement with the tools they need to immediately crack down on animal cruelty “crush” videos.  If you're like me, you don't have a clue about what a “crush” video is.  Let me just say there's a lot of depravity in our world.  A crush video depicts the intentional crushing, burning, drowning and impaling of puppies, kittens and other animals for one purpose…the disgusting titillation of some twisted people who will pay for those videos.

Back in 1999, President Clinton's administration passed the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act which pretty much eliminated the sale of the videos, but that Act was ruled unconstitutional in 2008.  Since then, the videos have reappeared and are now widely available for sale on the internet.

A day before H.R. 5092 was introduced in Congress, the Supreme Court ruled that the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Act was too broad, and might involve some depictions that are protected by the First Amendment.  That ruling led the sponsors of H.R. 5092 to immediately present it as a specific, targeted bill.

What can you do if you're as horrified as I am about this issue?  Encourage your representatives to support it!  Now that we know about this, we can't pretend that it doesn't exist.  Passing this bill is a no-brainer!

For more information, check out the Humane Society of the United States‘ web site.  You can see a list of the 50+ representatives who introduced the bill.  A good place to start is to thank them!

~BigSis