Lady Freethinker (LFT) and Action for Primates (AfP) welcome the prison sentence of 20 months given to Peter Stanley at Liverpool Crown Court, after he pleaded guilty to charges under the Obscene Publications Act for distributing monkey torture videos on Facebook. The videos posted online by Stanley depicted extreme violence and sexual abuse inflicted upon baby monkeys, including genital mutilation.
“I applaud the court for prosecuting this case, which is just one among an epidemic of brutal baby monkey torture on Facebook as well as encrypted message services such as Telegram,” LFT Founder Nina Jackel stated. “I hope this sentence sends a message to others who continue to distribute such horrific content online and believe there will be no consequences. This era of animal torture on social media must end.”
“We are very grateful to Merseyside Police for taking this action,” stated Sarah Kite, co-founder of AfP, a U.K.-based primate project — and the person who alerted the police about Stanley. “Individuals, such as Peter Stanley, involved in distributing obscene content depicting the sadistic torture and killing of baby monkeys need to know that there are legal consequences to their perverted behaviour. The videos shared by Stanley were particularly horrific, showing graphic genital mutilation of baby monkeys. We hope this prosecution and punishment will act as an important deterrent to others. This prosecution should also be a wake-up call to Meta and other social media companies that continue to allow this violent, graphic content to be posted on their platforms.”
Monkey torture videos have been increasing on social media in recent years. The degree of extreme violence to which monkeys are subjected for content to post for “entertainment” has also escalated. Examples include infant monkeys having parts of their bodies, including limbs, genitals, fingers and toes, broken or cut off; eyes drilled out with a power tool; and being set alight. One danger of allowing the circulation of these extreme graphic videos on social media is that it normalizes violence towards animals. Social media companies are providing a space for individuals to get together and share content that depicts highly sadistic, grotesque and perverted behavior.
Stanley belonged to several groups on Facebook dedicated to distributing videos depicting the torture of monkeys. In these groups, Stanley posted videos involving infant macaques, some just a few weeks old, brutalized in extreme and sadistic ways for online “entertainment”. The videos were also accompanied by sickening comments posted by Stanley, making light of the monkeys’ suffering and distress.
AfP and LFT have spent over three years investigating the sadistic world of animal torture videos. Our evidence and information have been given to various law enforcement agencies and spurred the BBC investigation and documentary about online monkey torture gangs – “The Monkey Haters” – which helped lead to the inclusion of animal cruelty in the U.K. Online Safety Act. Both animal groups are also members of the Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition (SMACC), a network of animal and wildlife protection groups from around the globe campaigning together to end the proliferation of animal cruelty content available on social media platforms.
Under the new Online Safety Act, social media companies are required to remove and prevent illegal content, including animal cruelty, from their platforms. Ofcom, responsible for publishing codes of practice and guidance for social media companies to fulfill their duties under this new legislation, recently published its public consultation to address online animal cruelty.
