ACTOR, OTHERS DECRY ANIMAL CRUELTY TAPES.

Byline: Sylvia L. Oliande Staff Writer

Actor Mickey Rooney joined animal-rights activists and public officials Monday in touting federal legislation that would outlaw ``crush'' videos, which depict small animals being killed by scantily clad women.

A bill by Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard, would provide a five-year prison sentence for the distributors of crush videos, which depict a little-known fetish that involves killing an animal on-screen for the sexual gratification of the viewer.

``What are we going to hand down to our children?'' asked Rooney, who is active in animal-rights causes. ``Are we going to hand down crush videos? It's despicable.''

Investigators for Ventura County District Attorney Michael D. Bradbury said there are thousands of the videotapes, selling for $60 to $100 each, in circulation around the world on hundreds of Internet sites.

At a news conference at the East Ventura County courthouse, officials played several clips from the videos, showing insects, kittens, guinea pigs and mice being crushed by women in bare feet or stiletto heels. The tapes' audio tracks enhanced the sounds.

Organizers said they want to expose the million-dollar industry because viewers who find the videotapes thrilling might feel a desire to harm larger animals or even humans for a bigger thrill.

``It's the torturing of animals that we find most offensive,'' said Beverlee McGrath, an Oxnard-based representative of the Doris Day Animal League. ``We wear animals. We eat animals. We experiment on them. Do we have to torture and kill them for entertainment?''

The New York chapter of the U.S. Humane Society and the Animal Defense League in Oregon turned videotapes over to Bradbury's investigators in May 1998.

Members of the groups said they bought the tapes over the Internet from a company called Steponit, which rented a mail drop box in Burbank and was traced to a Thousand Oaks man whom officials refused to identify.

District attorney's and sheriff's investigators from Ventura County tracked down three Southern California producers of crush videos: Steponit, Squish Productions and Getsmart. Deputy District Attorney Tom Connors said it is difficult to make arrests since authorities must prove that the images were filmed within three years because of the current statute of limitations on prosecuting cruelty to animals.

In May, Los Angeles County authorities arrested Gary Thomason of Long Beach, owner of Getsmart, on suspicion of cruelty to animals. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday in West Covina for Thomason and a co-defendant, Diane Aileen Chaffin, on three felony counts of torturing, maiming and killing mice, including newborn mice, and rats.

They are accused of making a video in which the woman stomped rodents to death with high-heeled shoes. Chaffin is jailed in lieu of $45,000 bail. Thomason is free.

Connors said investigators are compiling a case against Steponit in the hope of opening up a grand jury investigation.

Gallegly said his bill is aimed at the distributors to attack the industry at the money source.

``We clearly drafted it to make sure that it doesn't get involved in violating First Amendment rights for freedom of speech,'' he said. ``We don't want these perpetrators to use (the Constitution) as a right to perpetuate this action.''

Just as there is no constitutional right to tape and sell child pornography, there is no right to tape and sell videos of cruelty to animals, he said.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--Color) Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard, left, and actor Mickey Rooney push Monday for Gallegly's bill to ban videotapes of women crushing small animals under foot, as in a foreground photo.

(2 -- Ran in Conejo only) ``It's despicable,'' actor Mickey Rooney said about crushing animals under foot for entertainment.

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer