More than 50,000 people sign petition for maximum sentencing of 'monster' teens who tortured deer to death before tearing off its antlers
A petition calling for the maximum sentencing of the "monsters" who filmed themselves torturing, killing, and skinning a deer in Pennsylvania has already garnered more than 500,000 signatures at the time of writing.
MEAWW previously reported that the horrific video was uploaded on social media platform Snapchat by Cody Hetrick and Alex Smith, of Brookeville, and later circulated on Facebook, where outraged users immediately demanded that the authorities punish them to the full extent of the law.
In the video, which is currently being investigated by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the teens can be seen kicking a wounded deer repeatedly and laughing. After it appeared to have died, they tore off one of its antlers and skinned it live.
The commission slammed their conduct as "reprehensible" and "potentially a violation of the law," and confirmed that Pennsylvania State Game Wardens were investigating the incident.
A change.org petition set up in the immediate aftermath of the video going viral and demanded that the teens be charged has now collected 511,000 signatures.
"They committed sickening acts of violence and tortured this helpless deer," the petition read. "The two of them took a video of the actions and are seen laughing while restricting the animal, crushing the animal's face, repeatedly kicking and stomping the animal's face as the animal is desperately and helplessly seen trying to evade."
"Charges need to be pressed," it added. "CHARGES NEED to be FILED WITH MAXIMUM SENTENCING."
While the teens have not yet been arrested, a Pennsylvania Game Commission spokesperson told ABC News that they are expecting to announce charges soon.
President Donald Trump recently signed the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act into law which, while not outlawing hunting, did expand on a 2010 law that targeted videos depicting the crushing or torturing of animals, such as this one.
The previous law did not prohibit the underlying conduct, but under this one, such acts are a federal crime and will see those convicted of acts of animal cruelty such as suffocating, burning, crushing and/or drowning animals face up to seven years behind bars.
Anyone with further information has been advised to contact the Operation Game Thief Hotline at 1-888–PGC-8001 or the Game Commission’s Northwest Region Dispatch Office at 814-432-3187.