SLOBODIAN: Sadistic ‘entertainment’ animal torture, kill underworld thrives

Warning: Content includes graphic extreme animal abuse detailsThe arrest of two Winnipeg residents allegedly connected to animal torture videos posted on the dark web is just a glimpse into a thriving sadistic underworld.Depravity knows no bounds in this sinister subculture where deranged suppliers create content — called animal crush videos — to ‘entertain’ the deranged morons for whom watching animals tortured and killed is a thrill. For a price, sometimes only $20, requests for specific torture methods are staged.Numerous investigations discover grisly videos of animals skinned alive, thrown into boiling water, beaten, set afire, buried alive, lowered into blenders, tortured with power tools, eaten while alive, limbs and tails sawed off, subjected to bestiality, and more — for profit and entertainment.Dogs, cats, birds, pangolins, bears, pythons, gibbons, and monkeys are most commonly used.Soulless psychopaths abusing animals to create crush videos, or the increasing fundraising ‘rescue’ scam videos on social media, aren’t only in faraway places spanning the globe.Last week’s Winnipeg arrests indicate monsters could be living next door. Who knows who nearby is watching these atrocities?The court will examine gruesome video evidence — pity people in that courtroom — and determine the fate of Irene Lima, 55, and Chad Kabecz, 40, both charged with multiple offences.They’re alleged to be connected to animal torture content videos posted on the dark web between May and August, Winnipeg Police (WPS) said Friday.“Investigators told me that this is the worst case that they've dealt with — a very, very horrible case involving animal cruelty,” said WPS spokesperson Const. Stephen Spencer.Police found evidence of cruelty involving 10 cats and a rabbit.WPS and the Office of the Provincial Veterinarian Animal Welfare must be commended for taking swift action after receiving a tip from a citizen about videos and photographs of animals being killed and tortured.Project Artemis (the Greek goddess of nature and protection) was launched in August.Lima and Kabecz already sit behind bars. The ongoing investigation is looking into links to other similar crimes.Unfortunately, animal rights organizations and citizen sleuths complain that not everyone rushes to the defence of animals to track down abusers, like WPS did.Those who do this to animals can’t be human. They must be hunted down, stopped, severely punished. No leniency for them or anyone who aids and abets the horror.A 2021 investigation determined social media companies — YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok — earn millions of dollars from hits and shares of crush videos. Investigators said the videos alone they examined had 5.3 billion views.Despite professing tough policies against animal cruelty, despite lobbying by the heartbroken and outraged, the proliferation of torture continues online.In June the US non-profit Lady Freethinker protested outside Meta headquarters in Menlo Park, California demanding the tech giant remove violent animal abuse material permeating Facebook, according to PCMag that revealed how “crypto buys cruelty.”At the same time, the UK non-profit Action for Primates urged Meta’s London offices to cancel thousands of Facebook groups, pages and users posting and reposting videos of baby long-tailed macaque monkeys being tortured, mutilated, and killed.This month Virginia’s Mike Macartney, 50, alias The Torture King, was sentenced to a paltry three years and four months in jail for creating and distributing animal crushing videos. Macartney was a ringleader in the horrific global monkey torture network exposed by the BBC Eye.Hundreds of customers from several countries joined social media groups that share this content. They paid to view the torture of the macaques.“It was extreme depravity. We saw a video of a baby monkey being put into a blender, videos with power tools used on monkeys. It was torture like you can't imagine,” said BBC investigative reporter Joel Gunter. “It was shocking how casually they would plan and discuss this torture, and then switch to talking about mundane subjects like gardening.”Special agent Paul Wolpert, who testified at Macartney’s hearing, stressed the depth of the depravity and the helplessness of the monkeys.“These are living beings, they have human qualities, and during this torture you could see them reaching out to try and find some comfort and not getting any.” .Others in the ring use online aliases. Alabama grandma Stacey Storey goes by Sadistic. The BBC described her as one of the most “brutal figures” in the monkey torture network who directed the most disturbing videos like the “live baby monkey being lowered into a blender.” Storey’s phone had 100 torture videos.Some in the network have been convicted, some face charges, and some have yet to be arrested. In the US, the maximum sentence is seven years in prison.Last month in the UK Liverpool’s Peter Stanley, 42, received a mere 20-month prison sentence for distributing these videos the judge called “horrific.”“The monkey torture community appears to have evolved on YouTube before spreading to dark web forums and the encrypted messaging app Telegram, where private torture groups had hundreds of members,” reported the BBC.Meanwhile, on August 27 ABC news reported “easily accessible” Instagram accounts with hundreds of followers displaying content of the sexual exploitation and other types of cruelty committed against dogs and other pets.“The majority of the posts are so graphic, the ABC has chosen to limit the details,” it said.“Despite Instagram's policies against animal cruelty and explicit content, the ABC has found dozens of these accounts have been active for extended periods, often hidden behind cryptic hashtags.”Animal abuse accounts on various sites have 100 to 10,000 followers.Horrific animal abuse doesn’t end there.An October 1 report Spot the Scam: Unmasking Fake Animal Rescues, warned to beware of sadists professing to be rescuers looking for donations, clicks and likes.Vile organizations drug animals, torture and maim them, place them in danger, then stage fake heroic rescues on camera. They beg for money to ‘rescue’ more, according to a Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC) report. No one knows what happens to the kittens or dogs and monkeys set up to have pythons squeeze them.The report claimed 52% of fake animal rescue content was found on Meta platforms, but TikTok has the most views.The six-week SMACC investigation uncovered 1,022 fake rescue videos across Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and X viewed 572 million times. How many get duped into sending these demons money?Meanwhile, if social media companies do catch or flag crush video groups, they simply spread to another group.Lady Freethinker is one organization demanding Meta flag common keywords torture groups use. Pressure is on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and social media platforms to develop monitoring systems to identify and remove content instead of relying on viewers to report it.Civilian sleuths played a hand in the capture of Luca Magnotta sentenced to life in prison in 2014 for the murder of Canadian university student Jun Lin. Magnotta, a porn star started out with animal crush video obsession, then graduated to sadistically dismembering Lin.The warning issued by WPS’s Spencer isn’t to be taken lightly.“And I can say, you know anecdotally when individuals that are believed to be involved in heinous crimes against helpless animals, that often leads to escalating violent behavior …” said Spencer.Does the Criminal Code take animal abuse seriously enough?In Canada, cruelty to animals is a hybrid offence under Sect. 445.1. It can be prosecuted as a summary conviction (maximum penalty up to a $10,000 fine or two years less a day in jail, or both); or as an indictable offence (maximum penalty five years in prison.) The courts tend to go easy on the convicted.Can there be redemption for psychopaths, who for whatever reason, torture and kill helpless animals?The mother of convicted psychotic cat killer Calgary’s Aleeta Raugust doesn’t think so.In September 2023, Raugust was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for torturing and killing nine cats and threatening to burn her mother’s house down.Cassandra Raugust called her daughter the “Jeffery Dahmer of pet owners and begged the judge to send her to prison. “I fear that if Aleeta is released, it will be humans next.”Harsher penalties — that will be handed down by the courts — are needed.Law enforcement needs more funds to battle this incomprehensible evil.Pressure must be ramped up on social media platforms. Write, call, petition.The demented subculture, not the animals, must be crushed.Silent tears won’t do it.

SLOBODIAN: Sadistic ‘entertainment’ animal torture, kill underworld thrives

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