II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 479 

To revise section 48 of title 18, United States Code, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 13, 2019 

Mr. TOOMEY (for himself, Mr. BLUMENTHAL, Mrs. FEINSTEIN, and Mr. DURBIN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to 

the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To revise section 48 of title 18, United States Code, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Preventing Animal 

5 Cruelty and Torture Act’’ or the ‘‘PACT Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. REVISION OF SECTION 48. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 48 of title 18, United 

8 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 

9 ‘‘§ 48. Animal crushing 

10 ‘‘(a) OFFENSES.— 


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1 ‘‘(1) CRUSHING.—It shall be unlawful for any 

2 person to purposely engage in animal crushing in or 

3 affecting interstate or foreign commerce or within 

4 the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of 

5 the United States. 

6 ‘‘(2) CREATION OF ANIMAL CRUSH VIDEOS.—It 

7 shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly create 

8 an animal crush video, if— 

9 ‘‘(A) the person intends or has reason to 

10 know that the animal crush video will be dis11 tributed in, or using a means or facility of, 

12 interstate or foreign commerce; or 

13 ‘‘(B) the animal crush video is distributed 

14 in, or using a means or facility of, interstate or 

15 foreign commerce. 

16 ‘‘(3) DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMAL CRUSH VID17 EOS.—It shall be unlawful for any person to know18 ingly sell, market, advertise, exchange, or distribute 

19 an animal crush video in, or using a means or facil20 ity of, interstate or foreign commerce. 

21 ‘‘(b) EXTRATERRITORIAL APPLICATION.—This sec22 tion applies to the knowing sale, marketing, advertising, 

23 exchange, distribution, or creation of an animal crush 

24 video outside of the United States, if— 


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1 ‘‘(1) the person engaging in such conduct in2 tends or has reason to know that the animal crush 

3 video will be transported into the United States or 

4 its territories or possessions; or 

5 ‘‘(2) the animal crush video is transported into 

6 the United States or its territories or possessions. 

7 ‘‘(c) PENALTIES.—Whoever violates this section shall 

8 be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 

9 7 years, or both. 

10 ‘‘(d) EXCEPTIONS.— 

11 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This section does not apply 

12 with regard to any conduct, or a visual depiction of 

13 that conduct, that is— 

14 ‘‘(A) a customary and normal veterinary, 

15 agricultural husbandry, or other animal man16 agement practice; 

17 ‘‘(B) the slaughter of animals for food; 

18 ‘‘(C) hunting, trapping, fishing, a sporting 

19 activity not otherwise prohibited by Federal 

20 law, predator control, or pest control; 

21 ‘‘(D) medical or scientific research; 

22 ‘‘(E) necessary to protect the life or prop23 erty of a person; or 

24 ‘‘(F) performed as part of euthanizing an 

25 animal. 


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1 ‘‘(2) GOOD-FAITH DISTRIBUTION.—This section 

2 does not apply to the good-faith distribution of an 

3 animal crush video to— 

4 ‘‘(A) a law enforcement agency; or 

5 ‘‘(B) a third party for the sole purpose of 

6 analysis to determine if referral to a law en7 forcement agency is appropriate. 

8 ‘‘(3) UNINTENTIONAL CONDUCT.—This section 

9 does not apply to unintentional conduct that injures 

10 or kills an animal. 

11 ‘‘(4) CONSISTENCY WITH RFRA.—This section 

12 shall be enforced in a manner that is consistent with 

13 section 3 of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act 

14 of 1993 (42 U.S.C. 2000bb–1). 

15 ‘‘(e) NO PREEMPTION.—Nothing in this section shall 

16 be construed to preempt the law of any State or local sub17 division thereof to protect animals. 

18 ‘‘(f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

19 ‘‘(1) the term ‘animal crushing’ means actual 

20 conduct in which one or more living non-human 

21 mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is purposely 

22 crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or 

23 otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury (as de24 fined in section 1365 and including conduct that, if 

25 committed against a person and in the special mariVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:06 Feb 23, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S479.IS S479

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1 time and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, 

2 would violate section 2241 or 2242); 

3 ‘‘(2) the term ‘animal crush video’ means any 

4 photograph, motion-picture film, video or digital re5 cording, or electronic image that— 

6 ‘‘(A) depicts animal crushing; and 

7 ‘‘(B) is obscene; and 

8 ‘‘(3) the term ‘euthanizing an animal’ means 

9 the humane destruction of an animal accomplished 

10 by a method that— 

11 ‘‘(A) produces rapid unconsciousness and 

12 subsequent death without evidence of pain or 

13 distress; or 

14 ‘‘(B) uses anesthesia produced by an agent 

15 that causes painless loss of consciousness and 

16 subsequent death.’’. 

17 (b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENT.— 

18 The table of sections for chapter 3 of title 18, United 

19 States Code, is amended by striking the item relating to 

20 section 48 and inserting the following: 

‘‘48. Animal crushing.’’. 

Æ 


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