In response to the outlets investigation, YouTube and Facebook said animal abuse has no place on their platforms, and they are working to remove content. “We’ve seen an escalation in this extreme, graphic content, which used to be hidden but is now circulating openly on platforms like Facebook,” Sarah Kite, co-founder of animal charity Action for Primates, told the BBC. While many of the videos have been taken down, others can still be found easily on Facebook and Telegram. M Ajis Rasjana has been sentenced to eight months in prison – the maximum available sentence for animal torture in the south-east Asian country – while Asep Yadi Nurul Hikmah will spend three years in jail, having also been charged with the sale of a protected species.īut the abuse has not stopped. Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, two people have already been convicted. “Mr Ape” and McCartney claimed they had been involved only to uncover the groups, and Storey said she had been hacked. While they have not been charged, they may face up to seven years in prison if prosecuted. In America, “Mr Ape” and Storey – as well as a former motorbike gang member, Mike McCartney, who compared earnings from the footage to “drug money” – are among five people who have been targeted by DHS. “The same with the attorneys and the juries, and anybody who reads that this is going on. “I don’t know if anybody would ever be ready for a crime like this,” he added. Special Agent Paul Wolpert, who is leading the investigation for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said that anyone involved should “expect a knock on the door at some point”. While watching animal abuse online is not necessarily illegal, law enforcement agencies have been targeting those directly involved in the torture, as well as anyone who has bought or sold videos online. ‘Torture rings like child sexual abuse gangs’ According to the BBC, the video operator charged around £150 per video. This included putting one baby monkey in a blender and torturing others through forced feeding, power tools and jars of acid. They reportedly found video operators to put their plans into action on camera, predominantly in Indonesia. Alongside a 46-year-old grandmother from rural Alabama – known online as “Sadistic” but named as Stacey Michelle Storey – “Mr Ape” came up with some of the most unfathomable torture ideas.
The channel – which had around 400 members – was headed by “Mr Ape”, said to be a university graduate in his mid-20s who lived in Florida.
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