Bloomington man pleads guilty to funding, distributing monkey torture videos
A Bloomington man pleaded guilty this month creating and distribute "animal crushing" videos featuring tortured monkeys.
Between the summers of 2021 and 2022, Jeffrey Radtke, 61, received over 20 electronic payments ranging from $1 to $300 from customers that he used to pay Indonesian videographers for footage depicting the torture and deaths of juvenile monkeys, according to court documents.
"The level of cruelty inflicted on these helpless infant monkeys is horrifying and inexcusable," said Nina Jackel, founder of the Los Angeles-based nonprofit animal rights organization Lady Freethinker, which issued a statement following Radtke's Sept. 24 guilty plea in Virginia.
"I applaud all of the recent actions by law enforcement and hope to see additional prosecutions soon.”
Radtke and others directly communicated with a co-conspirator in Indonesia and would direct the videographers on how to torture the animals. Between June 7, 2021, and Aug. 5, 2022, Radtke sent over 40 payments ranging from $25 to $295 to the Indonesian videographer to create new "animal crushing" videos to send to other co-conspirators.
Per Cornell University, practice of animal crushing refers to conduct in which animals are "purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury."
Investigators seized Radtke’s electronic devices on April 24 last year, and on his computer found more than 2,600 videos and 2,700 images depicting animal crushing.
Radtke will be sentenced on Feb. 13, 2025, and faces up to five years in prison.
Dozens of others have been arrested for similar crimes, such as Ronald Bedra of Ohio, who pleaded guilty to creating and distributing videos depicting acts of extreme violence and sexual abuse against monkeys.
It follows an investigation by UK nonprofits Action for Primates and Lady Freethinker, who helped uncover the existence of “Million Tears,” a sadistic online monkey torture group set up in 2021 that worked with people in Indonesia to facilitate monkey torture videos.
The evidence they uncovered, including videos and screenshots of chats from Bedra and other group members, was handed over to the U.S. authorities.
Members of the ''Million Tears'' group could allegedly pay for their own "private monkey" to be filmed while being tortured, or several members could make smaller contributions towards a "community monkey."
Following "Million Tears," other groups sprung up dedicated to the torture, mutilation, and killing of infant long-tailed macaques.
“We welcome the action taken by law enforcement against individuals involved in facilitating the torture of baby monkeys for ‘entertainment," Sarah Kite, co-founder of Action for Primates, said.
"The extreme violence and depravity displayed by members of these online monkey torture groups is horrifying. Such cruelty must never be tolerated. We hope the arrests and punishments taking place will deter others from becoming involved in these perverted and sadistic activities.”
