Utah man charged for allegedly torturing guinea pigs online

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man has been charged by a federal grand jury in Salt Lake City for allegedly torturing guinea pigs online.

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According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Utah, Samuel J. Webster, 18, has been charged with 23 felony counts for allegedly torturing four guinea pigs he got from some pet supply stores, 18 felony counts of distributing animal videos online, one felony count of creating an animal crush video, and four felony counts of animal crushing, bringing the charges up to 45.

Federal law has made it illegal “to depict, via photograph, motion-picture film, video, digital recording or electronic image, actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians is intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury, and is obscene,” according to the to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Utah.

KTSU says the guinea pigs were purchased in October and Webster allegedly posted 23 videos on YouTube that showed him torturing them. They say titles for those videos were “Torture is Fun” and “Guinea Pig Torture,” among others.

In addition to posting the videos, Webster also allegedly posted comments on his own videos talking about wanting to kill guinea pigs and torture them, according to KTVX.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Utah says the FBI special agents are conducting the investigation.

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