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July 17, 2009
I guess I’m a felon - 9
And here I thought it was my Second Amendment rights that were most endangered. Turns out, it’s my First Amendment rights that are in jeopardy. I could go to jail for just doing my job. I could get three years in the slammer for the photo I snapped of my proud puppy retrieving a fall turkey. I might get probation for my grainy video of a turkey being killed by an ecstatic first-time crossbow hunter. My friends over at Versus Network may do hard time for their televised hunting shows that show animals being killed. Anyone who takes a photo or shoots a video of hunting is a potential felon. That’s the chilling conclusion of a federal court ruling that indicted Virginia outdoor writer and videographer Robert Stevens on animal cruelty charges. He was convicted and sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release. For what? For selling videos that depicted dogfighting. Now, I find dogfighting reprehensible, and I’m happy that it’s illegal in nearly every state. But here’s why you should care about Stevens’ case: one of the indictments stemmed from a video, “Catch Dogs,” that showed hunters using dogs to track and hold wild boars. There was nothing illegal about that where the video was shot. Many states, especially in the South and East, have a long and honorable tradition of using hounds to track and bay wild pigs. I grew up hunting coons over red-tick hounds. I hunt birds over flushing dogs. Am I participating in federally prohibited animal cruelty? Stevens’ conviction was based on a federal law banning “depictions of animal cruelty.” Note that it’s not the act of “cruelty” itself that was in question, but rather the distribution of the images in states where the act depicted might be illegal. It’s convoluted, and happily an appeals court overturned Stevens’ conviction. But the whole case, which is now before the U.S. Supreme Court, raises some unsettling questions, like: • Am I breaking federal law if I photograph a crossbow hunt in Ohio, then sell the photo in Oregon, where crossbow hunting is illegal? • Are my pictures of mountain lion hunting with hounds in Montana considered illegal if I distribute them in California, where hound hunting is prohibited? • How about the hero shot of a happy 10-year-old with their first deer? Could I do time for showing the picture in a state where the minimum hunting age is 12? Those are silly examples, but they are the very sorts of thing that might be regulated by this law. Robert Stevens’ conviction was a full five years ago, but his case is getting a very public review now because his appeal has been taken up by the U.S. Supreme Court. How the court rules will affect every outdoor writer, photographer and hunter in America. The Humane Society and some radical government lawyers are claiming this is a case about dog fighting. If they get their way they will work to make more traditional hunting methods illegal, and then prosecute writers and photographers who get caught up in this Orwellian circle. This isn’t a case about animal cruelty. It’s about the First Amendment, and readers should get just as hot about infringements to free speech as they do about attacks on the Second Amendment.
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Comments (9)
Great points you raise Andrew. I for one take all my freedoms very seriously and get very upset when they are threatened or taken away.
With perverted rulings we get from the modern courts there is well founded reason for concern. My pipe dream is someday some legislature is going to tell the court where to go after they make some inane freedom grabbing decision.
It is getting to the point the courts need a reining in.
Cut court funding, reorganize them put limits on what they
can consider and make it mandatory they uphold the constitution and all its amendments.
Great Post Andrew
MK
Wow...It truly makes you think.
Andrew,
Great article,yes we are deffinitly living in the land of the offended.I'm the type if I don't like a movie I walk out,no fuss or additude I just leave.The same with a TV show,just change the channel.The problem,"my opinion" is the bleeding heart liberals.Back in the day,hog hunting on a Friday and Saturday night was the norm,I had some of the best hog dogs this side of the Missippi,pits,kerrs and leoperds,yes I lost a few in the heat of battle,but thats what them dogs love to do.Dog fighting is something I knew of growing up but never agreed with it nor ever partook in.I have a pitbull now and a chocolate lab and both dogs are like family and best buds in dog terms.The problem is that everybody puts a lable on everything,people can put inmoral shows on you tube and TV and thats OK,but put something like a hunting show in any fashion on and it's in human,well LIBS. if it wasn't for us meat eating hunters the human race would have never survived.If you don't like watching someone shoot a deer or catch a hog change the channel.
Later,
BRBB
WOW!
Wow that's ridiculous. Good post. Can't believe they'd do that. Obviously brought on by some lame liberals that feel the need to press their views upon the rest of us. But i agree that no one's holding you down and making you watch it, you don't like it don't watch it. I hope that this ends in our favor.
Andrew - good post, and way to look out for fellow sportsmen. Another interesting thing to note is how hunting videos have changed in recent years. If you grab a vhs tape from 10 years back, you'll notice the camera capturing the kill all the way through the expiring of the animal...now days on our latest dvd hunting scenes, you'll notice the camera fades out after the shot and you pick back up at an animal that has obviously been laying for several hours. It's sad to say that something we have all grown to love has to be censored for the benefit of those who don't even want to understand...much less actually watch.
This is outrageous. I hope they appeal this.
Wow, that is a great article, and well worth keeping an eye on, and trying to get in front of!
Post a Comment (200 characters or less)
Great points you raise Andrew. I for one take all my freedoms very seriously and get very upset when they are threatened or taken away.
With perverted rulings we get from the modern courts there is well founded reason for concern. My pipe dream is someday some legislature is going to tell the court where to go after they make some inane freedom grabbing decision.
It is getting to the point the courts need a reining in.
Cut court funding, reorganize them put limits on what they
can consider and make it mandatory they uphold the constitution and all its amendments.
Andrew,
Great article,yes we are deffinitly living in the land of the offended.I'm the type if I don't like a movie I walk out,no fuss or additude I just leave.The same with a TV show,just change the channel.The problem,"my opinion" is the bleeding heart liberals.Back in the day,hog hunting on a Friday and Saturday night was the norm,I had some of the best hog dogs this side of the Missippi,pits,kerrs and leoperds,yes I lost a few in the heat of battle,but thats what them dogs love to do.Dog fighting is something I knew of growing up but never agreed with it nor ever partook in.I have a pitbull now and a chocolate lab and both dogs are like family and best buds in dog terms.The problem is that everybody puts a lable on everything,people can put inmoral shows on you tube and TV and thats OK,but put something like a hunting show in any fashion on and it's in human,well LIBS. if it wasn't for us meat eating hunters the human race would have never survived.If you don't like watching someone shoot a deer or catch a hog change the channel.
Later,
BRBB
Great Post Andrew
MK
Wow...It truly makes you think.
Wow that's ridiculous. Good post. Can't believe they'd do that. Obviously brought on by some lame liberals that feel the need to press their views upon the rest of us. But i agree that no one's holding you down and making you watch it, you don't like it don't watch it. I hope that this ends in our favor.
Andrew - good post, and way to look out for fellow sportsmen. Another interesting thing to note is how hunting videos have changed in recent years. If you grab a vhs tape from 10 years back, you'll notice the camera capturing the kill all the way through the expiring of the animal...now days on our latest dvd hunting scenes, you'll notice the camera fades out after the shot and you pick back up at an animal that has obviously been laying for several hours. It's sad to say that something we have all grown to love has to be censored for the benefit of those who don't even want to understand...much less actually watch.
This is outrageous. I hope they appeal this.
WOW!
Wow, that is a great article, and well worth keeping an eye on, and trying to get in front of!
Post a Comment (200 characters or less)