Update: Brent Justice and Ashley Richards have been indicted by a federal grand jury for creating and distributing animal crush videos. They have been transferred into federal custody, where they will remain until they stand trial. Justice and Richards each face up to 45 years in federal prison and up to $1.75 million in fines. This is the first federal indictment of a crush video case in the United States.

Originally posted on August 21:

After PETA was alerted to violent fetish videos sold online showing puppies, kittens, rabbits, mice, and other animals who were tortured in ways that would make even a hardened person sick, our Cruelty Investigations Department staffers worked around the clock to find the perpetrators. Thanks to skillful sleuthing and with the help of the Animal Beta Project, PETA determined that the alleged producers of the videos lived in Houston, Texas, and rushed the evidence to local authorities. Two days later, the Houston Police Department (HPD) arrested Brent Justice and Ashley Richards, two suspects believed to be involved in an international video sales scheme, on felony warrants and charged them with animal torture.

Photo: Houston Police Department/Houston Chronicle

Photo: Houston Police Department/Houston Chronicle

The Real 'Torture Porn'

PETA applauds the HPD and the Harris County District Attorney's Office for their swift action. We will be pushing for federal charges as well, as making crush videos is a violation of federal law. Such videos feature animals, including mice, puppies, kittens, and rabbits, slowly tortured to death for the sexual gratification of fetishists.

Charges for both suspects result from a video that PETA gave to the HPD, in which a woman prosecutors say is Richards is shown cutting the leg and slashing the neck and throat of a puppy before beheading the struggling animal with a meat cleaver. Richards also faces charges related to the torture and killing of a cat in a 2010 video. As the Houston Chronicle reports, a "judge halted the reading of the court documents during a hearing last week because the details were too graphic." Richards has reportedly admitted to killing hundreds of animals over the years. The investigation is continuing.

What You Can Do

As this case shows, for animals in danger, one phone call or e-mail can the make the difference between life and (perhaps a horrible) death. Please, if you witness or hear about cruelty to animals, never be silent.

I love debunking tired, meaningless clichés, but here's one I've never been able to disprove: Everything is bigger in Texas. The state's latest colossus? The largest abortion clinic in the United States.

Planned Parenthood of Houston won't open its new facility—a 78,000-square-foot, renovated former bank—until April, but a coalition of pro-life advocates and religious leaders will gather in Houston on January 18 to protest the clinic. We'd like to bring some peace to all this debate by urging everyone to respect the sanctity of all life, so we're asking to erect our "Pro-Life? Go Vegan" billboard in the area.

A cruelty-free diet makes sense no matter where you stand on the abortion debate. Oh, and, yes, with all this obsession with breaking size records, my 5'4" of self-esteem is doing just fine, thanks.

Written by Logan Scherer

I’m sure most everyone is already aware of Burger King’s recent animal welfare improvements, but I still wanted to share this little tidbit with you. The BK story was covered all over the media, but the Houston Chronicle took it a step further and published this amazing editorial on corporate responsibility and animal welfare.

It’s not every day that animal issues get the coverage they deserve, much less with phrases like “Though most consumers are vaguely aware of it, cruelty is the rule, not the exception, when it comes to producing the meat most of us buy” and “On factory farms, pigs exist packed into wire or wood pens; tails are hacked off so they won't gnaw each other from stress and boredom. Sows are entrapped in "farrowing crates" so tiny they cannot turn around” so I was pretty psyched to read this.

So anyway, yeah, there you have it. Props up to the Houston Chronicle for taking an uneqivocal stance on this issue.