Does the law affect artists ability to depict images of animal cruelty in their artwork?
No. As noted above, the law is narrowly drawn to prohibit only those depictions of cruelty to animals in which (a) the underlying cruelty is unlawful, and (b) the depiction itself has no redeeming political, social, journalistic, historical or artistic value. There is an exemption written directly into the statute that exempts depictions with artistic value. The law also criminalizes only depictions sold in interstate commerce for commercial gain. In reality, artists and journalists and others who are engaging in true forms of “expression,” face no more scrutiny under this statute than they do under existing obscenity laws, which prohibit certain forms of obscenity and pornography that lack all expressive value.
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