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Court Rejects Animal Cruelty Law

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Los Angeles Times

Published: July 19, 2008

WASHINGTON - In a setback for the animal-rights movement, a U.S. appeals court struck down on free-speech grounds Friday a federal law that made it a crime to sell videos of dogs fighting and other acts of animal cruelty.

All 50 U.S. states have laws against the abuse of animals, the appeals court said, but "a depiction of animal cruelty" is protected by the First Amendment.

The ruling overturns a Virginia man's conviction, the nation's first under the law. Robert J. Stevens of Pittsville, Va., advertised and sold two videos of pit bulls fighting each other and a third showing the pit bulls attacking hogs and wild boars.

He sold the videos to prosecutors in Pittsburgh, was prosecuted, convicted and given three years in prison.

In Friday's decision, the appeals court in Philadelphia, by a 10-3 vote, said it was not prepared to recognize a new category of speech that is unprotected by the First Amendment.

Acts of cruelty to animals "warrant strong legal sanctions," the appeals court said, but it ruled unconstitutional the effort to criminalize for-profit depictions of animal cruelty.

Congress passed the law in 1999 in hopes of stamping out the trade in animal-cruelty videos.

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