An Ohio man pleaded guilty to creating and distributing videos showing extreme violence and sexual abuse of monkeys. An Ohio federal court unsealed a plea agreement on Monday by Ronald Bedra, of Etan, Ohio, saying he conspired with others to create and distribute "animal crush" videos showing monkey torture.
According to the plea agreement dated April 8, Bedra admitted to being an administrator for an online forum called Million Tears, which hosted monkey torture content, beginning in June 2021. A few months later, he mailed a thumb drive containing 64 monkey torture videos to a co-conspirator in Wisconsin.
In the plea agreement, authorities describe what happens in some of the videos. Most of them show a monkey tied so its arms and legs are spread and its genitals are exposed, and then an unknown person begins to abuse it. In one, the animal's fingers are cut off and shoved in its mouth. In another, it's stabbed through the ears, eyes, nose, and penis. And in others, it's beaten in various ways.
Bedra also admitted to helping brainstorm ways to torture monkeys in other videos in a group chat in October 2021. In one discussion, they talked about heating a screwdriver until it was "white hot ... and then shoving it up a monkey's asshole" and Bedra responded that the most he could "kick in is $20" to pay for the content.
A few days later, Bedra helped refine the hot screwdriver request, saying: "Burning hot screwdriver deep into asshole. Spin monkey on it." Then, they sent their requests along with payments to a videographer in Indonesia. However, when Bedra received the video a day later, he called it "so lame."
Later, in February 2022, Bedra's co-conspirator once again floated the idea of having the video of "a hot screwdriver up the ass video" created to which Bedra replied: "YES PLEASE" and "Get screwdriver RED HOT. Put it up ass. Hold screwdriver still and spin monkey on it." When Bedra received the video less than a month later, he wrote: "BURNING HOT SCREWDRIVER SUPERGLUED INTO A BUTTHOLE" and "About to drive to work ... will watch when I get there! Big download."
According to the Animal Welfare Institute's website, animal crush videos gained the name because early films in the genre depicted a person literally crushing helpless animals. Although there was some back and forth about whether or not banning animal crush videos violates First Amendment rights, the U.S. Congress established a narrow law banning the creation and selling of such videos.
For the charges of conspiracy and distributing animal crush videos, Bedra could face up to 12 years in prison, $500,000 in fines, and supervised release. It's unclear when sentencing will take place.
Article updated May 13, 2024 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern
