Gallegly goes after animal crushers
FETISH TAPES: D.A.'s inability to prosecute over videos
prompts legislation.

By Jeff Miller
Star Washington bureau

WASHINGTON -- Last year, an animal protection group
sent a videotape to the Ventura County District Attorney's
Office showing women crushing the life out of mice and other small
animals with their feet.

The group bought the animal-crushing tape over the
Internet from a man in Ventura County. Prosecutors soon identified
the man but found they were powerless to arrest him.

The videotape itself wasn't illegal, nor was selling
it. Killing the animals constituted illegal acts of animal cruelty,
but the tape was only circumstantial evidence.

"He had dozens and dozens of titles he was
selling, (but) we couldn't do anything because of the (three-year)
statute of limitations," said Deputy District Attorney Tom
Connors. "We couldn't prove when the videos were made."

After exhausting its options, the District Attorney's Office turned to
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, who introduced a
bill in Congress last week aimed at closing that loophole.

"It's absolutely mind-boggling," he said. "I can't even watch the tapes."

Animal crushing appears to blend foot fetishism, a
form of sexual deviance, and sadism, in which people derive
pleasure from others' pain.

It's not known how widespread the practice is.

Two psychologists who have written extensively on
sexual deviance and sex on the Internet said they had never heard of
animal crushing.

But animal groups and police say crushing tapes are
readily available over the Internet from distributors in the
United States, Mexico, Japan and the Netherlands. The tapes sell
for up to $100.

"There are about 2,000 different foot-fetish
tapes where they're involving animals," said Beverlee McGrath of
Oxnard, the California lobbyist for the Doris Day Animal League. "That
shows you there's quite a market for it."
Al Cooper, clinical director of the San Jose Marital
and Sexuality Centre, who has studied sex and the Internet
extensively, isn't surprised.

"One thing about the Internet is it gives the
option for a limitless number of variations," Cooper said. Even if only
10 people in the world are interested in some form of sexual
deviance, "the Internet enables them to come together."

People who have seen the videos say small animals --
snails, frogs, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs and even kittens -- are
secured with string or a wire to floor or other surface. Some
scenes are shot from below through glass.

Women in the videos wear shoes intended to arouse --
stiletto heels or elegant pumps -- or they go barefoot.

For the animals, it's a slow, torturous death.

"I think the worst part of this," McGrath
said, "is they magnify the sounds of the animals. It's completely
disgusting."

Suffolk County, N.Y., Detective Adam Gross
understands how difficult animal-crushing cases are to make.

Gross, with the Suffolk County Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, arrested a 27-year-old man one
year ago for a allegedly selling crush tapes and photos over the
Internet and through foot-fetish magazines.

The case began after one of the man's models was
overcome with remorse and contacted police.

Even then, police had to obtain a video over the
Internet and take statements from other, less cooperative, witnesses
to get a search warrant.

They were able to make the case after finding other
videos, photography equipment, photos of animals being
crushed, an order book with the man's customers and 10 live mice.

The case is still pending.

Gallegly said his bill was difficult to draft
because of First Amendment free speech protections. The bill attempts
to get around the issue by targeting only the commercial aspect of
the videos.

Buying an animal-crushing video wouldn't be illegal.

But selling them would be. The penalty could include a fine and a
prison term up to five years.

"I personally think this is a no-brainer,"
Gallegly said. "If we can stop the profits, maybe we can stop the
activity."