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Georgie Purcell just delivered a major win for animals. After a concerted campaign led by the Animal Justice Party MP, Victoria's Parliament passed an amendment to the Crimes Act 1958 in March 2026, strengthening the state's bestiality laws to capture a broader range of sexual offences against animals.
It's a win years in the making. Prior to the passing of the bill, the distribution of bestiality or crush ("snuff") footage and images was not even an offence under Victorian law. An open-source investigation conducted in 2020 revealed that at that time, there were over 3,000 animal abuse videos available for sale to people in Australia via the dark web. These videos included bestiality material as well as footage of videos of puppies, kittens, baby chicks, ducklings, mice, snakes, rabbits, pigs, fish and insects all being crushed or killed. Most disturbingly, investigators even found that consumers were being offered custom-order video content.
Georgie took that evidence into Parliament and built the support needed to act, and bring Victoria's inadequate legislation in line with laws in New South Wales, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT.
Changes made under the Amendment to the Crimes Act 1958 include:
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A broadened definition of bestiality which encompasses all sexual contact with animals.
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It is now a criminal offence to produce, distribute, possess, or access (view) animal abuse material, including bestiality and “crush” videos which depict animal torture for sexual gratification.
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The introduction of disposal powers allowing authorities to seize and destroy animal abuse content.
The passing of this Amendment to the Crimes Act 1958 is a huge outcome for animals. Facilitated by dark web forums, sexual and torture offences against animals have been on the rise so increased powers to prosecute offenders will be an important deterrent measure.
These laws are important for so many reasons. There is a well-documented link between sexual crimes against animals and other offences – including the sexual abuse of children. So acting on it not only protects animals, but people too.
