OHMIDOG! : Dogfighting videos: Should they be illegal?

Should it be a crime to sell, own or distribute videos portraying dog fighting or other acts of animal cruelty?
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to take up that question, the Baltimore Sun reports.
While all 50 states have laws against animal cruelty — and while*Congress 10 years ago made it illegal to sell or possess photos or videos of animals being maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed — the question has arisen again because of an appeals court ruling*last year.
A federal appeals court in Philadelphia declared then that the rarely used law was unconstitutional on the grounds it violated free speech. The judges said the First Amendment*protects depictions of*illegal activity with only few exceptions, child pornography being one.
The ruling overturned the conviction of Robert J. Stevens, a Virginia man who was serving three years in prison for selling*videos of pit bulls fighting and viciously attacking other animals. Stevens advertised the videos in Sporting Dog Journal,* an underground journal that reports on illegal dog fights.
Stevens sold the videos to federal agents in Pittsburgh in 2003, and his prosecution was the*first*under the federal law that made it a crime to sell*such videos.
Government lawyers appealed, urging the*Supreme Court* to revive the law. “Graphic depictions of torture and maiming of animals … have little or no expressive content or redeeming societal value, and Congress has compelling reasons for prohibiting them,” they said in their appeal. Animal cruelty has “no place in a civilized society,” and the law should punish those who profit from it, they said.

There are only a few exceptions to this rule, the judges noted. One is child pornography. It is always illegal to sell or own pornography that features children. The appeals court said it was unwilling to create a new category of expression that is unprotected by the First Amendment.
The Supreme Court voted to hear the government’s appeal this fall.



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Hell yes it should be Illegal to distribute that kind of videos. What good does it do for our breed absolutely nothing only makes it worst. Unless the the feds found you mailing them everywhere you probably wont get in much trouble for it. Since when does the surpreme court follow the constitution anyway? j/k

Thats bad business we dont need that. Im sure the old dogmen have plenty of vhs locked away but those days are over. Maybe if i can get that on blu ray ill buy it

 

Our constitutional rights MUST be protected.

The videos are part of historical reference. Depiction of these practices, as mundane as the general public would deem it, holds social value as it depicts tradition of a specific community.

The horror of World War are sold in packs of 3 DVDs for 59.99.

Our right [to free speech] has more value and importance than the sensitivity of a group who can choose NOT to view them if they wish.

 

Why should it be illegal. Your forgetting what Ourbreed was bred to do. you know what trips me straight out is you have Porn on cable Just a click away. You have tv shows with gays all over it. You can watch two men beat the hell out of each other. you can watch the worst kid of killing and rape you can think of. But you think it should be illeagle watching two dogs do what they love to do more than anything else. This kind of thinking has put us in the shit hole. Only in america wher our f-ing people voted so a damn chicken has more rights than a man. But its ok to have two boys F-kin. it just blows my mind.

 

LMAO...wanna talk about a no-brainer for The Supreme Court:rolleyes:

If I had to guess, the law against possessing/selling these videos will be declared unconstitutional by a wide margin...

Just a guess...

I, personally, do not understand what practical use such films would have in today's society, but it would most definitely seem that the videos in question are protected under The First Amendment (that said, these videos...while legal...make great evidence )

 

Good point Rocky and your absolutely right tripleJ i can see it in that light but with this bsl goin on everywhere my first thoughts were it isnt good. With porn all over the place, gay marriages, legal prostitution, legal marijuana it shouldnt be a big deal its history. They showed Iraq getting bombed operation shock and aw was worse than this

 

And now that I think about this a bit more, it would be QUITE a slippery slope if The Supreme Court ruled that the law stands...

Think of all of the PHOTOS of old matches one can find in books on the APBT...

Under the law in question, possessing those books would be a crime...

 

they showed sadaam get lynched on cable and the internet... That was history... So why the hell can't I own some shows on video... Its the history of my dogs and the breed I love

 

Whose society?

What practical use does today's society gain from videos on concentration camps and dead naked bodies? How about bombardment?

Or like TripleJ stated, how about the homosexual channels? (not saying I am against it, i just choose not to watch them...seriously, I swear....It was only once, I'm telling ya......and I didn't even like it....lmFao)...sorry, lost my train of thought there for a sec.

The point to be made is this: Regardless of what happens in the videos, ownership on its own does not condone the practice. A Historian will have as many sources of information as available. The Pit Bull Community has plenty of historian attempting to save the little recordkeeping that has lasted the many years of persecution.

Without written records, a society cannot be.:cool:

 

Historical value...and the historical value of old match footage cannot be compared to The Holocaust. ..an event that took the lives of 6,000,000 Jews...

That said, I stated earlier that historical value has absolutely no bearing on the freedom of speech argument.

:eek: Yes...covered under freedom of speech as well...

You are preaching to the choir, brother. Just because I see no value in the footage does not mean other people do not value the footage, or that I support making the footage illegal.

For instance: Let's say you value an old dirty sock. Do I value your old dirty sock? Hell no!!! Do I support your right to value your dirty sock, as long as you are within the limits of the law...well of course.

Indeed. And as I stated earlier, it would seem that the law would not only cover videos but photos as well...making the majority of books about the APBT illegal. And while I may not own any videos, I do own some of the classic books on The APBT and that would make me, by default, a criminal.

But this is really a non-issue for the most part. If the SCOTUS interprets the 1st amendment the way it was written, this is most definitely a no-brainer.



BUT- wanna know what the kicker is? Possessing these items is more than likely protected under free speech...selling these, more than likely, will NOT be protected.

Once you move in the realm of financial gain, the situation changes drastically.

 

violent vids are available at blockbuster right now. Anybody seen bum fights and all those stupid 'documentaries'?
But historical match vids should be illegal? Bullspit.
The only thing those vids in question shouldn't be is available to the general public.Nowadays match vids are a tool for people who know what they are looking at,not for some dumbass to sit around and laugh and get pumped up on.

 

Im slow on this one. can you have tapped match just not profit from it? Or not have them at all? what if pre 76 ? what if from a different country ? you can get F.E.D.S & i forget the name of the other one at best buy. it has footage of dogs in it.

 

Having old tapes of matches should not be illegal.Who does it hurt,them dogs have been dead for 35 or 40 years.Maybe our society is getting to civilized for it's own good,just a thought.Life's hard,no need in people getting to upset over it.You can see any kind of graphic violence in a movie or on the news,there's porn and all other kinds of stuff,what's wrong with a guy watching an old tape of some dogs.Are they going to go after the animal shows like Crocodile Hunter next.I've seen animals eat other animals in it.