Among the five captive elephants is former circus performer Joyce, who has been living at Six Fields Wild Safari Adventure in Jackson Township for the past 16 years.
An elephant stands under a shade structure with a roller coaster in the distance. Credit: World Animal Protection
The U.S. Department of Justice confirmed that four individuals have now pleaded guilty to being part of an online chat group dedicated to creating, sharing, and discussing videos of extreme monkey torture.
Four of these were part of an indictment in May 2025 that saw 11 people from across the country charged with using Telegram, an online messaging application, to discuss ideas for so-called ‘animal crush’ videos, before paying for such content to be filmed.
In a separate case, Nicholas Dryden, of Cincinnati, Ohio, was identified as one of the sources of these videos, and in July of this year was sentenced to nine years in prison. Dryden admitted to paying a minor in Indonesia to commit, and film, acts of sexual and physical violence on baby and adult monkeys. These videos depicted various acts of sodomy, and monkeys having their limbs broken, and their genitals mutilated.
Speaking at the time of Dryden’s sentencing, Doug Ault, assistant director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) Office of Law Enforcement, described the case as “extraordinarily disturbing and heinous.”
With the help of the FBI, authorities have been working to track down all those involved in the online chat groups. This resulted in further, separate convictions, and earlier this month Amanda Fourez, of Catlin, Illinois, was sentenced to 31 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
According to court papers, Fourez belonged to various chat groups dedicated to sharing and creating monkey torture videos, and paid thousands of dollars to commission bespoke content, which she then archived and distributed over the Internet. Fourez pleaded guilty, but the court denied her motion for a downward variance, noting the “agonizing torture” inflicted on the animals.
“Amanda Fourez commissioned the mutilation of helpless animals on video, and then disseminated those gruesome videos to an online community of people who were seeking content that portrayed the infliction of severe pain and suffering,” said U.S. attorney Troy Rivetti for the Western District of Pennsylvania, in a statement of October 9. “Today’s sentencing demonstrates the ongoing commitment of the Department of Justice and our law enforcement partners to investigating and prosecuting these serious federal crimes involving cruelty to animals.”
And Joseph Garrett Buckland, of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, will be sentenced on October 29, for his role in creating and sharing ‘animal crush’ videos.
“Producing and trafficking in animal crush videos is a serious federal crime,” said Rivetti, in April, after Buckland had pleaded guilty. “Intentionally 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.”
Of the 11 accused in 2025, three pleaded guilty between July and August of this year, with sentencing scheduled for December 2 and 17 respectively, while a fourth, Ernest Chavez, of Arizona, pleaded guilty last week.
The conspirators include Kimberly Anglin, a 49-year-old nurse residing in Stratford, Connecticut. According to the indictment, Anglin messaged Dryden to ask how much a video would cost. She later sent him two separate payments of $100 and $75, in April 2023.
Signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, the Animal Crush Video Prohibition Act outlaws the creation, distribution, and sale of ‘animal crush’ videos, which refers to any photograph, film, video, motion picture, digital recording, or electronic image that depicts a live non-human mammal, bird, reptile, or amphibian being subjected to serious and deliberate bodily harm – such as burning, crushing, drowning, impaling, or asphyxiation – for sexual or psychological gratification.
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In total, seven people have now admitted to being part of U.S.-wide online chat groups that created, shared, and discussed videos depicting extreme physical and sexual abuse of monkeys.