Court ruling sparks animal cruelty concerns

SUBURBAN WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- They're called "crush" videos. Images depict women in high heels crushing and mutilating small animals to give viewers a thrill.

Such videos and images were considered illegal until a U.S Supreme Court ruling this week, which found them to be a form of free speech protected by the first amendment. 

"It's one of the worst things you could ever watch," says Capt. Dave Walesky with Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control.

Walesky says there are laws on the books locally to prevent acts of cruelty in our area. But law enforcement had always depended upon the federal law to deal with people trying to sell images of those cruel acts. 

"From what I'm being told from local law enforcement sources, there are people in Palm Beach County that are involved in this," says Walesky.

Given the court's ruling, Walesky and other animal control officials from around the state now plan to use a meeting they'd already scheduled for Friday in Polk County to discuss pushing for a state law banning such videos.  "The content of these is so horrific, that freedom of speech shouldn't even be an issue," says Walesky.

The high court case dealt with a Virginia man named Bob Stevens, who characterizes the videos as educational.

Free speech advocates like West Palm Beach civil liberties attorney James Green say while they don't condone what Stevens does, the court's 8-1 ruling was correct. "The court held that the reach of this law was just way too broad. It was not limited and could not be limited to just crush videos," says Green.

In response, local animal rights advocates say they'll join the Humane Society in its effort to pass a  more-narrowly-worded law specifically targeting such videos.

In the meantime, they fear that without such legislation cases of animal cruelty will increase. "'Because we can no longer rely on the federal law," says Walesky.