Michael Macartney, 50, confessed to the BBC his role in an extreme monkey torture network.

A ringleader in a global monkey torture network exposed by the BBC has been charged by US federal prosecutors.

Michael Macartney, 50, who went by the alias “Torture King”, was charged in Virginia with conspiracy to create and distribute animal-crushing videos.

Mr Macartney was one of three key distributors identified by the BBC Eye team during a year-long investigation into sadistic monkey torture groups.

Two women have also been charged in the UK following the investigation.

Warning: This article contains disturbing content

Mr Macartney, a former motorcycle gang member who previously spent time in prison, ran several chat groups for monkey torture enthusiasts from around the world on the encrypted messaging app Telegram.

  • chetradley@lemmy.world
    1·
    8 months ago

    Why do you value the lives of other humans? If it’s intelligence that’s the metric, then why value babies or mentally handicapped people? If it’s their ability to feel sadness, pain and fear, then all land animals we eat have shown those same characteristics.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
      1·
      8 months ago

      It’s not about the ability to feel an emotion but maybe it’s a lot of things. I know for a fact just the capacity to complexly communicate (with humans) would be a primary one. And so, I would say I value babies lives less to some extent.