Animal Cruelty--New Issue on Freedom of Speech

Animal cruelty is a very serious issue all over the world. Animals are like children; they react according to how they are treated and thus our treatment to them should be humane and kind. Animals are not here to provide violent entertainment to people who need to see that kind of thing. They act as kind companions to us and deserve to be treated so. They can feel the pain that is inflicted on them and it is unfair to force them into it. Just as child abuse is illegal, animal abuse is. Thus, if the promoting of the mistreatment of children is illegal, why shouldn't the distributing of cruelty to animals be illegal?


As stated in the New York Times:
"The law applies to audio and video recordings of 'conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed.' It does not matter whether the conduct was legal when and where it occurred so long as it would have been illegal where the recording was sold."

If movies have to be rated according to their material, then these videos should not be allowed for open distribution. Even if they were not banned outright, some form of control must be put on them. Also, the law is flexible so there can be exceptions.
The current distribution of videos depicting scenes of animal cruelty seems to promote the acts. People can buy them for entertainment. If the action is illegal, why should the tapes made of the actions be legal? It merely encourages the behavior and it also contradicts other laws, such as the one against the distribution of videos of child pornography. The idea is the same: if the action is illegal, then the videos of the action should be illegal as well.