A Cincinnati man named Nicholas Dryden was just sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for running one of the most disturbing animal abuse networks ever uncovered. He paid people overseas to film baby and adolescent macaques being tortured and mutilated, then sold that footage to buyers across the internet through private online groups he ran.

But Dryden couldn't have operated without customers. The people who paid for those videos — who created the demand for this cruelty — face little to no accountability under current law. That has to change.

Federal law prohibits creating and distributing animal crush videos, but prosecuting buyers remains rare. The individuals who funded this torture ring by purchasing content are treated as peripheral to the crime, even though their money is what made it possible. Without buyers, there is no market. Without a market, there is no incentive to film.

Law enforcement, prosecutors, and Congress must treat the purchase of animal torture videos as a serious federal crime — with real consequences for everyone in the chain. We are calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to expand prosecutions to include purchasers and financiers of this content, and on Congress to strengthen the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act to close this gap.

The monkeys who suffered cannot speak for themselves. Sign this petition to demand that every person who funded their abuse, not just the one who filmed it, faces justice.