On this day in vegan history · November 25, 2019
The PACT Act Closes the Crush Video Loophole
For nine years federal law only punished the video of an animal being crushed to death, not the crushing itself, until a signing ceremony at the White House finally closed that gap.
The facts
- Signed
- November 25, 2019, at the White House
- Bill number
- H.R. 724, 116th Congress
- House sponsors
- Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL)
- Senate passage
- By unanimous consent, November 5, 2019
- Penalty
- Up to 7 years in prison, a fine, or both
On November 25, 2019, President Donald Trump signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, known as the PACT Act, making malicious animal crushing, burning, drowning, suffocation, impalement, or comparable serious harm to a living mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian a federal felony. The bill, H.R. 724, had passed the House in October and the Senate by unanimous consent on November 5, with no lawmaker voting against it. It answered a specific hole in the law: the 2010 Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act banned selling videos of animals being crushed for a sexual fetish, but the Supreme Court's 2010 ruling in United States v. Stevens had already thrown out the broader 1999 depictions law on First Amendment grounds, and neither statute actually reached the person doing the crushing off camera. The PACT Act made the underlying act itself a federal crime, punishable by up to seven years in prison, a fine, or both, whenever it crosses state lines or happens on federal property.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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This commonsense legislation restricts the creation and distribution of videos or images of animal torture.
President Donald Trump, remarks at the PACT Act signing ceremony, November 25, 2019
Source: The White House (archived) -
It is important that we combat these heinous and sadistic acts of cruelty, which are totally unacceptable in a civilized society.
President Donald Trump, remarks at the PACT Act signing ceremony, November 25, 2019
Source: The White House (archived)
Why it still matters
It was the first time Congress made animal cruelty itself, rather than just footage of it, a federal crime, giving the FBI a nationwide tool for a fight that had previously depended entirely on which state the abuse happened in.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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