A 48-year-old Oregon man pleaded guilty to paying for videos of tortured and murdered monkeys and raising money through an online animal abuse group to do so.
David Noble, of Prineville, was charged in U.S. District Court in Oregon with conspiring to engage in animal crushing and creating and distributing animal crush videos, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Animal crushing, a sexual fetish for those who produce and watch videos of the torture, is a federal crime under a 2010 law pushed by animal rights activists.
It is unclear exactly when Noble — a dishonorably discharged U.S. Air Force officer — first paid for one of these videos, but court documents say it started no later than Jan. 19, 2022. Noble was an administrator of an online group that funded overseas videos “depicting, torture, mutilation and murder of monkeys,” federal authorities said.
In February, 2023, federal investigators searched Noble’s central Oregon home and found 50 videos showing animal abuse, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. They also found ammunition and an M4 rifle — a weapon Noble was not allowed to have as a dishonorably discharged member of the military.
After the search, officials said Nobel moved to Henderson, Nevada, where he was arrested on June 13. He made his first appearance in a Las Vegas federal courtroom the next day, and a judge ordered he be detained until he could be brought to Oregon.
Noble was dismissed from the Air Force and was issued a court martial for fraud and an unprofessional relationship in 2006, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Noble could face a prison sentence of up to five years, a $250,000 fine and three years’ supervised release. He will be sentenced on April 24.
