Political Dogfight
Farr pushes bill banning animal cruelty videos.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Congress is pushing back against the U.S. Supreme Court's April 20 decision sanctioning videos of dogfights and other images of animal cruelty. The 8-1 ruling, viewed as a First Amendment issue, struck down an earler law banning such videos.
But some legislators believe the decision was narrow enough to leave room for a similar, less constitutionally questionable law. Rep. Sam Farr (D-Carmel) on Wednesday signed on as a cosponsor of new legislation, H.R. 5092, "that would make it illegal to videotape and distribute so-called 'animal crush' videos," according to a Farr press release.
“I supported the original legislation in 1999 that effectively eliminated an entire category of videos depicting cruelty to animals," Farr stated. "Filming and distributing cruelty to animals in order to profit from some foul sense of gratification is not free speech, it’s a crime. If we can’t say no to these vile acts and those who profit from them, I say we’re way off track as a society.”
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