Four more people have admitted to taking part in a federal conspiracy built around videos of monkeys being tortured. Two of them, Mary Longoria and Patrick Naylor, live in North Carolina. Longoria is set to be sentenced on December 2, and Naylor on December 17. Kimberly Anglin of Connecticut also faces sentencing on December 2. Ernest Chavez of Arizona has pleaded guilty to conspiring to create and distribute these so-called “animal crush” videos, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

Federal prosecutors say members of these online groups used the messaging app Telegram to talk about the videos and to send money to people in Indonesia who filmed them. Behind every one of those videos was a real animal who could not escape.

These four were among 11 people charged in 2025 after an investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One man from Cincinnati, Nicholas Dryden, whom prosecutors identified as a source of the videos, has already been sentenced to nine years in federal prison. That sentence shows how seriously the courts can treat this cruelty. The people who joined these groups and kept the videos in demand should not walk away with a lighter message.

Federal law already makes it a crime to create and distribute animal crush videos. But a law only protects animals when it carries real weight. Soft sentences tell anyone still in these groups that the risk is small.

The federal judges handling these cases can set a clear standard this December. The DOJ can keep following the money until everyone in this network, in the U.S. and abroad, is held responsible.

Sign the petition to demand the toughest sentences the law allows before the December hearings, and to urge the DOJ to pursue every person who helped pay for this abuse.