VERMILION COUNTY, Ill. (WBBM Newsradio) – An Illinois woman has been sentenced to 31 months in federal prison for commissioning and distributing videos depicting the torture of monkeys.
Amanda Leigh Fourez, of Catlin in Vermilion County, will also serve three years of supervised release. She pleaded guilty in April to distributing animal crush videos and conspiring to create and distribute them, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Prosecutors said Fourez paid thousands of dollars for custom videos depicting extreme violence and sexual abuse against monkeys, then shared the recordings online. She belonged to several chat groups and private payment groups devoted to producing, distributing and discussing the videos.
U.S. District Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand rejected Fourez’s request for a sentence below the advisory guidelines range. During sentencing, Wiegand described the videos as “shocking and violent” and said they documented the “agonizing torture” of animals. She said the sentence should deter others from similar conduct.
“Amanda Fourez commissioned 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,” U.S. Attorney Troy Rivetti said in a statement.
Another member of the groups, Joseph Garrett Buckland, of Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to create and distribute animal crush videos. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2027.
Homeland Security Investigations’ New Orleans office investigated the case. Federal prosecutors in the Western District of Pennsylvania and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section are handling the prosecution.
