The Supreme Court has decided that the federal law that bans the selling and distribution of videos showing pit bulls attacking other pit bulls and other animals is unconstitutional. The grounds of this ruling pertain to the United States Constitution and that the law violates the freedom of speech. The article explains that this is a huge set-back for animal rights groups because it will allow individuals to continue to sell and distribute animal cruelty.
Even though I agree 100% that it seems unfair that the videos represent freedom of speech and are protecting under constitutional law; however, the article does explain that animal cruelty, whether to domesticated or wild animals, is still illegal. So, if the animal-rights community were to concentrate primarily on working towards eliminating dog fighting and animal cruelty, this would not be seen as such a huge set-back. Still, I understand that the proceeding sentence is a huge undertaking and probably unachievable because these abuse cases are far and wide.
Personally, I think that anyone who condones animal cruelty should be put in jail for life. It is disgusting, immoral and just plain wrong.
Article: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/20/dog.fight.videos/index.html?hpt=T1
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Thanks for the nice post, Laura. Here's another article that talks more about the issue, and that "Congress would be on safe ground if it redrafted the law to cover specifically 'staged animal cruelty that is actually connected to a crime.' Lovvorn [Humane Society vice president and chief counsel] added, 'I expect something to be introduced in Congress in short order.'"
ReplyDeletehttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/High-Court-Strikes-Down-law-1389179955.html?x=0&.v=1