The U.S. Senate has taken a step toward banning the selling of videos that show the abuse and killing of animals, known as "crush videos." The Senate unanimously passed the legislation ((HR 5566) several days after the House of Representatives passed it. The bill now heads to President Obamas desk for his signature.

Congress banned the videos in 1999, but the Supreme Court turned over the law earlier this year, ruling that it was too broad and violated the First Amendment. The current bill focuses in on the specifics of the crush videos; the law would make it a crime to record on video animals that are "intentionally crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury." The videos are sold as sexual fetish movies and usually show women in bare feet or high heels crushing small animals to death.

The law makes exceptions for videos of veterinary procedures, slaughter of animals for food, and videos on hunting, trapping and fishing.