CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – An ex-Navy sailor is going to prison for distributing a video showing the drowning of puppies. Twenty-six-year-old former Petty Officer Third Class Daniel James O’Sullivan was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty on March 28, 2018.
In June 2016, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) agents were notified that O’Sullivan would be in possession of disturbing videos that show the torture and killing of animals. Authorities interviewed him at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi where he was stationed at the time. O’Sullivan admitted he distributed a video to an individual in Montana that depicted the drowning of puppies in a river. That individual admitted to receiving the video.
Law enforcement conducted a forensic search on his digital devices which resulted in the discovery of the video depicting the drowning of puppies and other animal crush videos. In one video, a dog’s mouth is closed with duct tape as it is set on fire. In another, a dog is thrown off a high-rise building. Other videos depict mice and baby chicks being ground-up in a blender.
Under federal law, it is 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.
In September 2017, O’Sullivan received an other than honorable discharge from the Navy.
O’Sullivan was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future. He will also be required to serve a term of three years of supervised release following completion of the prison term.
