1.This Act may be cited as the
Animal Torture Prevention Act of
2010
.
2.The Congress finds the following:
(1)The Federal
Government and the several States have a compelling interest in preventing acts
of extreme animal cruelty.
(2)Each of the
several States and the District of Columbia criminalize intentional acts of
extreme animal cruelty.
(3)The clandestine
nature of certain acts of extreme animal cruelty allows the perpetrators of
such crimes to remain anonymous, thus frustrating the ability of Federal and
State authorities to enforce the criminal statutes prohibiting such
behavior.
(4)These criminal
acts constitute an integral part of the production of and market for so-called
crush videos and other depictions of extreme animal cruelty.
(5)The creation,
advertisement, and sale of crush videos and other depictions of extreme animal
cruelty provide an economic incentive for, and are intrinsically related to,
the underlying acts of criminal conduct.
3.Depiction of
extreme animal cruelty
(a)Section 48 of title 18, United States Code, is amended to
read as follows:
48.Depiction of
extreme animal cruelty
(a)Whoever, in or affecting interstate or
foreign commerce, knowingly creates, sells, distributes, or offers to sell or
distribute a depiction of extreme animal cruelty shall be fined under this
title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(b)In
this section—
(1)the term
depiction of extreme animal cruelty
means any visual depiction,
including any photograph, motion-picture film, video recording, or electronic
image, that—
(A)depicts actual
conduct in which one or more animals is tortured, maimed, mutilated, or
subjected to other acts of extreme animal cruelty, if such conduct is committed
for the primary purpose of creating the depiction;
(B)depicts conduct
that violates a criminal prohibition of intentional cruelty to animals under
Federal law or the law of the State in which the depiction is created, sold, or
distributed;
(C)appeals to the
prurient interest; and
(D)taken as a whole,
does not have more than de minimis religious, political, scientific,
educational, journalistic, historical, or artistic value;
(2)the term
State
means each of the several States, the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American
Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and any other
commonwealth, territory, or possession of the United States; and
(3)the term
animal
means any live amphibian, reptile, bird, or mammal,
except human
beings.
.
(b)The item relating to section 48 in the table of
sections at the beginning of chapter 3 of title 18, United States Code, is
amended to read as follows:
48. Depiction of extreme animal
cruelty.
.