[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5566 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5566


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 22, 2010

                                Received

                             August 5, 2010

       Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit interstate commerce 
            in animal crush videos, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Prevention of Interstate Commerce in 
Animal Crush Videos Act of 2010''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The Federal Government and the several States have a 
        compelling interest in preventing animal cruelty.
            (2) Each of the several States and the District of Columbia 
        criminalize intentional acts of animal cruelty.
            (3) The clandestine nature of certain acts of 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 animal cruelty.
            (5) The creation and sale of crush videos provide an 
        economic incentive for, and are intrinsically related to, the 
        underlying acts of the criminal conduct.
            (6) The United States has a long history of prohibiting the 
        interstate sale of obscene and illegal materials.
            (7) Animal crush videos appeal to the prurient interest and 
        are obscene.

SEC. 3. ANIMAL CRUSH VIDEOS.

    (a) In General.--Section 48 of title 18, United States Code, is 
amended to read as follows:
``Sec. 48. Animal crush videos
    ``(a) Prohibition.--Whoever knowingly and for the purpose of 
commercial advantage or private financial gain sells or offers to sell, 
or distributes or offers to distribute, an animal crush video in 
interstate or foreign commerce shall be fined under this title or 
imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
    ``(b) Rule of Construction.--Subsection (a) does not prohibit the 
sale, distribution, or offer for sale or distribution, of any visual 
depiction of--
            ``(1) customary and normal veterinary or agricultural 
        husbandry practices; or
            ``(2) hunting, trapping, or fishing.
    ``(c) Definition.--In this section the term `animal crush video' 
means any obscene photograph, motion-picture film, video recording, or 
electronic image that depicts actual conduct in which one or more 
living animals is intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, 
or impaled in a manner that would violate a criminal prohibition on 
cruelty to animals under Federal law or the law of the State in which 
the depiction is created, sold, distributed, or offered for sale or 
distribution.''.
    (b) Clerical Amendment.--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. Animal crush videos.''.

SEC. 4. BUDGETARY EFFECTS PROVISION.

    The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of complying 
with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by 
reference to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO 
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the Congressional 
Record by the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the House of 
Representatives, provided that such statement has been submitted prior 
to the vote on passage.

            Passed the House of Representatives July 21, 2010.

            Attest:

                                            LORRAINE C. MILLER,

                                                                 Clerk.