{"id":156368,"date":"2026-04-03T14:45:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/156368\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T14:45:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T14:45:07","slug":"pennsylvania-man-pleads-guilty-to-making-sadistic-animal-crush-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/156368\/","title":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania man pleads guilty to making \u2018sadistic\u2019 animal crush videos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) \u2014 A Westmoreland County man pleaded guilty in federal court to making animal crush videos for money.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Joseph Garrett Buckland, of Mount Pleasant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to create and distribute \u201canimal crush\u201d videos. He was charged Feb. 26 with violating the federal Animal Crushing statute, according to United States Attorney Troy Rivetti<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Court documents and statements made during Buckland\u2019s change of plea hearing show that he was a member of several online chat groups and private payment groups dedicated to the creation and distribution of violent videos depicting monkeys being tortured. This also included video of a baby and an adult having their limbs broken and genitals mutilated. Buckland personally collected money to create and distribute the videos.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cToday\u2019s plea should serve as a warning: animal crush videos are illegal, and we will prosecute individuals engaged in this sadistic behavior,\u201d said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department\u2019s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). \u201cInvestigating and prosecuting cases like this is not easy, and we commend all who worked to bring this perpetrator to justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Stay up to date with the latest news in the palm of your hand. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtaj.com\/apps1\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here<\/a> to download the WTAJ app for Apple and Android devices. <\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cProducing and trafficking in animal crush videos is a serious federal crime,\u201d Rivetti added. \u201cIntentionally inflicting harm and torture on innocent animals not only feeds a broader market of criminal depravity, it also often is linked to, or leads to, additional dangerous and violent conduct that further erodes society and public safety. With our law enforcement partners, we will continue to investigate and prosecute all crimes involving violations of federal law relating to horrific acts of cruelty to animals.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Buckland is facing a maximum of five years in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 29.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtaj.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ - www.wtaj.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WTAJ &#8211; www.wtaj.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) \u2014 A Westmoreland County man pleaded guilty in federal court to making animal crush videos&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[70891,8541,70890,28,30,29,70892,70893],"class_list":["post-156368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-animal-crush","tag-federal-court","tag-joseph-garrett-buckland","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-principal-deputy-assistant-attorney-general-adam-gustafson","tag-united-states-attorney-troy-rivetti"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}