In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

November 15, 2010. 

Resolved, That the House agree to the amendment of the 

Senate to the bill (H.R. 5566) entitled ‘‘An Act to amend 

title 18, United States Code, to prohibit interstate commerce 

in animal crush videos, and for other purposes.’’, with the following 

HOUSE ADMENDMENT TO SENATE AMENDMENT: 

In lieu of the matter proposed to be inserted by the 

amendment of the Senate, insert the following: 

1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Animal Crush Video 

3 Prohibition Act of 2010’’. 

4 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

5 The Congress finds the following: 

6 (1) The United States has a long history of pro7 hibiting the interstate sale, marketing, advertising, 

8 exchange, and distribution of obscene material and 

9 speech that is integral to criminal conduct. 

10 (2) The Federal Government and the States have 

11 a compelling interest in preventing intentional acts of 

12 extreme animal cruelty. 

13 (3) Each of the several States and the District of 

14 Columbia criminalize intentional acts of extreme ani-
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1 mal cruelty, such as the intentional crushing, burn2 ing, drowning, suffocating, or impaling of animals 

3 for no socially redeeming purpose. 

4 (4) There are certain extreme acts of animal cru5 elty that appeal to a specific sexual fetish. These acts 

6 of extreme animal cruelty are videotaped, and the re7 sulting video tapes are commonly referred to as ‘‘ani8 mal crush videos’’. 

9 (5) The Supreme Court of the United States has 

10 long held that obscenity is an exception to speech pro11 tected under the First Amendment to the Constitution 

12 of the United States. 

13 (6) In the judgment of Congress, many animal 

14 crush videos are obscene in the sense that the depic15 tions, taken as a whole— 

16 (A) appeal to the prurient interest in sex; 

17 (B) are patently offensive; and 

18 (C) lack serious literary, artistic, political, 

19 or scientific value. 

20 (7) Serious criminal acts of extreme animal cru21 elty are integral to the creation, sale, distribution, ad22 vertising, marketing, and exchange of animal crush 

23 videos. 

24 (8) The creation, sale, distribution, advertising, 

25 marketing, and exchange of animal crush videos is in-
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1 trinsically related and integral to creating an incen2 tive for, directly causing, and perpetuating demand 

3 for the serious acts of extreme animal cruelty the vid4 eos depict. The primary reason for those criminal acts 

5 is the creation, sale, distribution, advertising, mar6 keting, and exchange of the animal crush video image. 

7 (9) The serious acts of extreme animal cruelty 

8 necessary to make animal crush videos are committed 

9 in a clandestine manner that— 

10 (A) allows the perpetrators of such crimes to 

11 remain anonymous; 

12 (B) makes it extraordinarily difficult to es13 tablish the jurisdiction within which the under14 lying criminal acts of extreme animal cruelty oc15 curred; and 

16 (C) often precludes proof that the criminal 

17 acts occurred within the statute of limitations. 

18 (10) Each of the difficulties described in para19 graph (9) seriously frustrates and impedes the ability 

20 of State authorities to enforce the criminal statutes 

21 prohibiting such behavior. 

22 SEC. 3. ANIMAL CRUSH VIDEOS. 

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

24 States Code, is amended to read as follows: 
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1 ‘‘§ 48. Animal crush videos 

2 ‘‘(a) DEFINITION.—In this section the term ‘animal 

3 crush video’ means any photograph, motion-picture film, 

4 video or digital recording, or electronic image that— 

5 ‘‘(1) depicts actual conduct in which 1 or more 

6 living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or am7 phibians is intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, 

8 suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious 

9 bodily injury (as defined in section 1365 and includ10 ing conduct that, if committed against a person and 

11 in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of 

12 the United States, would violate section 2241 or 

13 2242); and 

14 ‘‘(2) is obscene. 

15 ‘‘(b) PROHIBITIONS.— 

16 ‘‘(1) CREATION OF ANIMAL CRUSH VIDEOS.—It 

17 shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly create 

18 an animal crush video, if— 

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

20 know that the animal crush video will be distrib21 uted in, or using a means or facility of, inter22 state or foreign commerce; or 

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

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

25 foreign commerce. 
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1 ‘‘(2) DISTRIBUTION OF ANIMAL CRUSH VID2 EOS.—It shall be unlawful for any person to know3 ingly sell, market, advertise, exchange, or distribute 

4 an animal crush video in, or using a means or facil5 ity of, interstate or foreign commerce. 

6 ‘‘(c) EXTRATERRITORIAL APPLICATION.—Subsection 

7 (b) shall apply to the knowing sale, marketing, advertising, 

8 exchange, distribution, or creation of an animal crush video 

9 outside of the United States, if— 

10 ‘‘(1) the person engaging in such conduct intends 

11 or has reason to know that the animal crush video 

12 will be transported into the United States or its terri13 tories or possessions; or 

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

15 the United States or its territories or possessions. 

16 ‘‘(d) PENALTY.—Any person who violates subsection 

17 (b) shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more 

18 than 7 years, or both. 

19 ‘‘(e) EXCEPTIONS.— 

20 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This section shall not apply 

21 with regard to any visual depiction of— 

22 ‘‘(A) customary and normal veterinary or 

23 agricultural husbandry practices; 

24 ‘‘(B) the slaughter of animals for food; or 

25 ‘‘(C) hunting, trapping, or fishing. 
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1 ‘‘(2) GOOD-FAITH DISTRIBUTION.—This section 

2 shall 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 enforce7 ment agency is appropriate. 

8 ‘‘(f) NO PREEMPTION.—Nothing in this section shall 

9 be construed to preempt the law of any State or local sub10 division thereof to protect animals.’’. 

11 (b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The item relating to sec12 tion 48 in the table of sections for chapter 3 of title 18, 

13 United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 

‘‘48. Animal crush videos.’’. 

14 (c) SEVERABILITY.—If any provision of section 48 of 

15 title 18, United States Code (as amended by this section), 

16 or the application of the provision to any person or cir17 cumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the provision and 

18 the application of the provision to other persons or cir19 cumstances shall not be affected thereby. 

20 SEC. 4. PAYGO COMPLIANCE. 

21 The budgetary effects of this Act, for purposes of com22 plying with the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall 

23 be determined by reference to the latest statement titled 

24 ‘‘Budgetary Effects of PAYGO Legislation’’ for this Act, 

25 jointly submitted for printing in the Congressional Record 
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1 by the Chairmen of the House and Senate Budget Commit2 tees, provided that such statement has been submitted prior 

3 to the vote on passage in the House acting first on this con4 ference report or amendments between the Houses. 

Attest: 

Clerk. 
111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H.R. 5566 

HOUSE ADMENDMENT TO 

SENATE AMENDMENT