Appeals court overturnes law against animal cruelty videos
July 23rd, 2008 by MiraOn Friday, a Philadelphia appeals court overturned the 2005 conviction of a man sentenced to three years in prison for selling dogfighting videos. Robert Stevens was the first to be prosecuted under a 1999 federal law criminalizing the sale of videos depicting any type of animal cruelty. The court decided that these videos were protected under the 1st Amendment, and stated that it would not recognize animal cruelty as a new category of speech that is not protected.
Although video and photos, even those depicting illegal conduct, are clearly protected under the 1st Amendment, this law was designed to make animal cruelty akin to child abuse, depictions of which are not protected. Judge Brooks Smith of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that while preventing cruelty to animals was a worthy cause, it was not in the same category as preventing cruelty to children. “Where children can be harmed simply by knowing that their images are available or by seeing the images themselves, animals are not capable of such awareness,” Smith wrote. “The fact that the act of cruelty was captured on film in no way exacerbates or prolongs the harm suffered by that animal.”1
Though there has been no reaction from the Justice Department at this point, there is the possibility of the government appealing to the Supreme Court, which often happens when a federal law is deemed unconstitutional.
What do you think? Should videos showing animal cruelty be protected by the 1st Amendment? Leave a comment to share your thoughts on this topic.
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1 Duffy, Shannon. 3rd Circuit Strikes Down Law Criminalizing Sale of Animal Cruelty Depictions. [Online] Available http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202423147825&rss=newswire, July 23, 2008.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I don’t why people step down and reach such type of cruel situation to hurt the pets. Thanks to the nations who safeguarded them against cruelty.
July 24th, 2008 at 9:35 am
What a crock that people can sell for profit videos where dogs (or any other animal) are being trained to fight to the death. I can’t see this as a 1st Amendment right at all.