US Supreme Court to review animal cruelty video law

The US Supreme Court said Monday it will review a lower court ruling that last year struck down a decade-old law banning the sale of videos depicting extreme acts of cruelty to animals.

Starting during its next term, the Supreme Court will take a new look at the controversial decision taken last year by a Philadelphia appeals court, which overturned the 2004 conviction of Robert Stevens for selling videos of dog fights and voided the law under which he was prosecuted.

That law, passed in 1999, banned the creation, sale or possession of material depicting animal cruelty and had helped US authorities to crack down on dogfighting operations, in which canines "often fight to the death for the amusement of viewers," the US Humane Society said in a statement.

But the appellate court concluded that the videos sold by Stevens, one of which featured "a gruesome depiction of a pit bull attacking the lower jaw of a domestic farm pig," were protected speech under the US constitution.

The court also concluded "that the federal government did not have a compelling reason to ban that speech," Jonathan Lovvorn, chief counsel to the Humane Society, told AFP.

"Videos of animals being tortured are not protected speech, and preventing animal cruelty is a compelling state interest, not only because our society values animals and their well-being, but also because people who perpetrate these acts of cruelty are often involved in other criminal behavior, including violence against people," the Humane Society said in a statement Monday.

The 1999 Depiction of Animal Cruelty law had also helped to wipe out the market for "animal crush" videos, which depict women, often in high-heeled shoes, impaling or crushing to death puppies, kittens and other small animals, the Humane Society said Monday.

Prior to the law, some 2,000 crush videos were available for purchase in the United States for between 15 to 300 dollars.

The law all but killed off the market for crush videos, but availability and sales have rebounded since the appeal court ruling last year, said the Humane Society, which is the largest animal protection organization in the United States.

"We wouldn't allow the sale of videos of child abuse or murder staged for the express purpose of selling videos ... and the same legal principles apply to despicable acts of animal cruelty," Humane Society president Wayne Pacelle said.

The solicitor general and the Humane Society had both asked the Supreme Court to review the appeal court's decision striking down the animal cruelty law and overturning Stevens' conviction.