A man has pleaded guilty to federal animal crush charges after paying an operator in Indonesia to brutally torture a young monkey and film the atrocious act.
Kenneth Herrera, a pharmacist from Soldiers Grove, Wisconsin, told a U.S. District Court judge that he paid a person in Indonesia $100 in December 2021 to torture a young macaque using pliers and a hammer and also to create videos of that torture.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 20, and Herrera faces up to seven years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
As part of his plea, Herrera agreed to make “a full, complete, and truthful statement” and to work with investigators trying to charge other people who belong to an international monkey torture ring first discovered by Lady Freethinker and UK-based nonprofit Action for Primates (AfP) in 2021.
The LFT and AfP investigation uncovered people commissioning acts of grisly violence against macaques through online social media platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, and Telegram.
The organizations alerted law enforcement and also provided intelligence to the BBC, leading to the chilling documentary “The Monkey Haters” and also criminal charges in the US, the UK, and abroad.
“Paying for the torture and killing of baby monkeys for online ‘entertainment’ – or for any reason – is appalling and must never be tolerated,” said LFT President and Founder Nina Jackel. “We are relieved that this individual, who is responsible for unimaginable cruelty, was prosecuted, and hope it will deter others from carrying out similar sadistic acts.”
LFT is continuing to directly appeal to social media platforms to remove online animal cruelty content and to ban channels and users who post or facilitate it.
We thank the more than 34,900 people who already have signed our petition urging accountability for these companies and users! If you haven’t already, please sign and share to help raise awareness for these defenseless animals.
SIGN: Remove Horrific Baby Monkey Torture Groups from Telegram
