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.

  • @[email protected]
    3•8 months ago

    That’s like saying a group of feral cats is “the same” as a pride of lions.

    No, I am talking about dogs and wolves, and this you’ve made up.

    A group of maine coons gone feral compared to a group of forest cats may be a better comparison, if cats are what you are thinking about.

    Anyway, I’m not advocating for keeping wolves as pets. Just for limited restoration of ecosystems including them.

    I don’t think you understand how large wolves are compared to dogs. I mean… you clearly don’t.

    I don’t think you understand there are, first of all, different subspecies of wolves, which makes this point not worth arguing really.

    Why is alright for the deer to die scared, panicking, alone, hobbling on one leg, while being eaten alive, but it’s not right for the deer to die completely unaware of impeding death? Why do you pretend dying in panic and blood gurgles is more moral than being executed cleanly?

    I don’t. You seem to really like arguing with yourself.

    You don’t have any idea how prevalent deer are, because you’re so far removed from nature and hunting that you don’t understand what population control actually entails. Deer are commonplace in POPULATION CENTERS.

    Some day someone may open your eyes to the fact that every part of the world is different.

    You need wolves in the places where those deer are that you’re supposing that they would hunt.

    No, I don’t. You are imagining things where you like them and then complain that what I say doesn’t fit. It won’t and it shouldn’t.

    Why do you pretend to understand wolves when you’ve demonstrated ignorance about their behaviour, size, biology and a million other things?

    I mean, I didn’t have a chance to demonstrate anything between your walls of text consisting of you imagining what others think and condemning that as if anybody could care.

    I also don’t think I’m more ignorant than you on frankly anything.

    Deer have to be hunted and there’s NOTHING immoral about hunting deer for population control just because you’re afraid of the most natural thing there is; death.

    So? This doesn’t have anything to do with anything I’ve said.

    • @Dasus
      -1•8 months ago

      “Limited restoration of ecosystems including them”

      No, you aren’t. You’re literally proposing that we use wolves for deer population management in places where population management is needed. That’s been the topic the entire time. Hunting isn’t immoral.

      Some day someone may open your eyes to the fact that every part of the world is different.

      So you plan to introduce wolves into places where they’ve never been naturally occuring? That doesn’t sound like “restoration” of any sort, does it? Or is it your ignorance about wolves again? You don’t know where they live and where deer live, do you? You don’t know much they overlap, do you? :)

      And no, it’s not the same as comparing feral maine coons to forest cats. That’s you being ignorant again, because you just don’t have any idea how ignorant you are about the subject. It’s paradoxical, I understand, it must be confusing. The difference is much closer to tiger vs a house cat. Not physically as different, but behaviourally, yes. Which you would know if you ever read anything except some tumblr posts. You didn’t even open the actual science I linked.

      The difference you’re imagining is much closer to the difference between a dog and a dingo, not a dog and a wolf. You have no idea how different wolves are. No idea. And you seem to be willfully ignoring anything that might contradict your thoughts. Not a very constructive way of thinking, I’m afraid.

      “between the walls of text” = “I’m having a hard time concentrating for the entire 1min 30s it takes the average reader to read a half a page of text, but I don’t want to admit that or stop replying, because I don’t want to admit how silly I was being”

      Okay buddy.

      So? This doesn’t have anything to do with anything I’ve said.

      Oh doesn’t it?

      Well, reintroducing predators would be a good way too. Most of Europe has no wild wolves.

      Wolves eat too many deers, become hungry and die, then there are more deers, wolves have more food, there are more wolves.

      I don’t think it’s immoral, I just think it’s ideologically dirtier for humans to perform the function of wolves.

      “ideologically dirtier”

      You think it’s “cleaner” to have someone go and rip someone to shreds and eat them alive, because you don’t want to “feel dirty”? And it wouldn’t even be you doing the shooting, since you’d never make a hunter with that understanding of nature. There is not a single benefit to reintroducing wolves and SEVERAL MASSIVE downsides to “reintroducing predators” to central Europe.

      You definitely didn’t even open the links, so I’m just gonna have to read them for you, sigh…

      https://biologyofbehavior.wordpress.com/2014/02/09/are-dogs-and-wolves-the-same-species/ (it’s a wordpress link, but it’s an actual study which references the sources)

      The story is very romantic: man and wolf, hunting and foraging together. Unfortunately there is simply no evidence; and if I’m being charitable, the probability that dogs evolved directly from grey wolves is extremely unlikely. While many similarities are perceived to exist between dog and wolf, upon closer examination, the similarities are almost impossible to find.