Man Guilty of Selling Videos of Dogfights

A man who sold pit bull fight videos was convicted Thursday, the first person to be found guilty at trial under a 1999 federal animal cruelty law.

A jury deliberated 45 minutes before convicting Robert Stevens, 64, of Pittsville, Va., of selling depictions of animal cruelty. He faces as much as 15 years in jail and $750,000 in fines at sentencing April 21.

“This dangerous and inhumane crime promotes violence and degrades our community,” U.S. Atty. Mary Beth Buchanan said after the verdict.

Stevens -- tried here because the tapes sold from his home were bought by Pennsylvania state police and federal Department of Agriculture agents -- sold two videos featuring dogfighting montages and a third showing pit bulls attacking hogs.

Stevens’ lawyer, Michael Novaro, argued that the tapes did not violate the statute’s intent to prevent “wanton cruelty to animals designed to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.”

President Clinton signed the law after complaints about videos in which small animals were pictured being crushed under the feet of women wearing spiked heels. Novaro said the sexual description doesn’t apply to Stevens’ tapes.

Ann Chynoweth of the Humane Society of the United States, which pushed for the law, said it was intended to target all those who profit from animal cruelty.

“Dogfighting’s big business,” she said. “It’s in every state, it’s on street corners, it’s nationwide. That’s why this law is so important -- it gets to those who profit from the barbaric animal cruelty of dogfighting.”

After the verdict, Judge Alan N. Bloch ordered Stevens to surrender any pit bulls he owned by Jan. 24, and prohibited him from being involved in any way with the animals or those who raised or trained them.