A crucial time:Congress needs you now!

The team has just gotten off the phone with Congressman Elton Gallegly’s office in D.C. They were more than happy to address our concerns regarding the wording of HR 5566. They assured us that Congress is still pressing the the Senate to add to the bill making it tougher on crush video. They hope to bring the Senate to vote soon. This is where all of you come in. We need you to keep sending mail to the Senators, strongly urging them to add more to the bill, making crush video illegal to sell, purchase and distribute, while including stipulation that will protect our rights to educate the world regarding this heinous practice. Once these changes are made in the Senate and the Senate votes positively on the bill, the bill will then go back to the House for revision approval. Once that is done, it will head straight to the president’s desk! We can not stress how important the issue of time constraint is in this situation. If the bill is not passed by year’s end, it will become “null and void”. We will have to start the process all over again. Please use the links at Stopcrush.org to contact your Senator today because countless animals need your help now!

This is to explain why Congress needs all of you to write to your Senators regarding the wording of HR 5566.

Text from HR 5566(Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010):

(a) Prohibition- Whoever knowingly and for the purpose of commercial advantage or private financial gain sells or offers to sell, or distributes or offers to distribute, an animal crush video in interstate or foreign commerce shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

The wording is based solely on commercial gain in Interstate sale and his is a very serious issue. Without wording that targets the sale, purchase and distribution, through commerce or not, it will be very hard for us to get websites which contain the videos taken down if there is no proof of/or intent to sell. Please use the information provided in Skylar’s letter to help you understand more clearly. We have also included stipulations that will protect those using the video to educate/spread awareness.
Below is Skylar’s letter explaining what we would like all of the senators to receive as a request from their constituency(you).

Skylar’s Sample Letter to the Senate regarding HR 5566:

 

Dear Senator (your Senator’s name here),

I am writing today in order to ask for your help in passing legislation to ban the creation, possession and sale/distribution of crush videos. Crush videos are sexual fetish videos which depict women crushing small animals such as puppies, kittens, mice and rabbits to death with their bare feet or high heeled shoes. In these videos, it is also not uncommon for the animals to be burnt alive, cut with pruning sheers, nailed to the floor, skinned, beaten, stabbed, among any number of possible horrific tortures.

While the acts perpetrated in the videos violate animal cruelty laws in all 50 states, the 1999 cruelty depiction law, which was created to protect them, no longer exists. It was initially enacted because it was difficult to prosecute those who participate in creating crush video, yet did not appear on camera. With the Supreme Court’s decision to void the 1999 law against the depiction of animal cruelty, crush “producers” are no longer afraid to publicly sell their videos and crush is once again becoming increasingly popular.

The law was recently dismantled by the Supreme Court, as it was deemed to be “too broad” and would adversely affect “free speech”. The law’s initial conception was enacted to stop the production of videos such as the ones generated by the crush industry, which we do not see as “free speech”.

The 1999 law was successful in driving crush video underground, however, since the law’s dismantling, there has been a new resurgence of crush video all over the internet in America. United States based web servers are now gaining profit by hosting those who are selling and housing crush video on their websites.

I urge you to pass legislation that will prevent anyone in the United States from gaining profit from this horrifying practice. More and more crush video and/or “snuff films” are reappearing on the internet. Please co-sponsor and pass Bill H.R. 5566 (Prevention of Interstate Commerce in Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010) to help make the Interstate sale of animal crush videos illegal.

We also ask that you add wording to this bill that will make it completely illegal to create, possess or distribute these videos and/or to generate websites that house them for viewing. Since Congress has seen fit to vote in vast majority for this bill being considered by the Senate, we urge you to make the necessary changes to HR 5566 and place it on the president’s desk for his signature.

Studies have shown that those who commit violent acts against animals are just as prone to commit said acts against human beings. We ask for stiff penalties against anyone generating, selling, distributing or possessing crush video and understand that the bill will most likely have to be altered to accommodate stipulations regarding the exclusion of prosecution under religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, artistic and historical value before the Senate will vote on it. We ask that you take a strong stance in support of our request not only to make it easier to prosecute the creators/distributors of these videos, but to make the internet and our mutual communities a safer place for our children.

Thank you,

(Your name here)

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Dear Senator,
the experience showed, that teenagers who killed in schools because of frustration, that before these persons, also punished animals. Please see the urgent and important in forbidding the crush videos and games.
The religion says, love your next like yourself, and this is always also an animal. An animal is a living beeing, it has physical and phsychological pain like you too.

This is important, I am counting on you, and I believe in you. We all trust you and your competence, please donT dissapoint us.

Thanks from the heart
Marion Bruckmann

Make stop animal cruelty!!They also must have legal rights!!STOP “CRUSH VIDEOS” that show animal torture!!