The members of the Virginia Animal Owners Alliance ask that you please vote "no" on HB 223 and its proposal for a lifetime ban. Supporters of this legislation point out that this ban will only be for the most heinous crimes, but they don't realize what is actually happening in the Commonwealth at the hands of the Animal Law Unit. The process of charging, prosecuting, and convicting a citizen over an animal is completely flawed and must be reformed before even considering something as permanent as a lifetime ban. There are also questions about how this bill is even relevant. Najeh Abedeljalil of Halifax County was given a lifetime ban at his seizure hearing BEFORE he was ever charged with a crime. His prosecutor was Michelle Welch of the Animal Law Unit. How did she get a lifetime ban on Najeh? Irina Barrett was charged with a felony for a dog that swallowed an object. This is a very common occurrence and Irina took Yeva to the vet for help. None of this mattered to the State. Evidence was withheld in regards to Yeva's necropsy. It was revealed at trial that the vet left an object inside of Yeva and she was never connected to an IV feeding system! Irina was acquitted of this felony charge that was used to raid her home. Attorney General Jason Miyares kept the State's version of events, however, in his recent press release. This reveals the BLINDNESS of his office. Irina was also charged with a felony for the torture and death of Deelah. The Fauquier SPCA later posted a picture of a VERY MUCH ALIVE dog! Michelle Welch moved to have the wording changed and this felony charge dismissed at the beginning of Irina's trial--after Irina was arrested for this charge and smeared in the media. This felony charge alone reveals A LOT about our current justice system. Rhiannon Vitiello was charged with FOUR FELONIES for horse body parts that were found in a 30-year-old farm compost pile--even though this was "junk science." She was prosecuted by Michelle Welch and these four charges were finally dismissed. Rhiannan was also charged with a felony for a horse that was experiencing colic. COLIC IS ONE OF THE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN EQUINES. Why was Rhiannan criminally pursued for this? Robin Vince (Rhiannan's mother) was charged and CONVICTED for THREE FELONIES for three old, dead horses that had been euthanized and buried on her property! Amy Taylor (who is now part of the Animal Law Unit) was part of the raid and testified against Robin. Robin appealed the verdict, but did not win her appeal. Debbie Coley was charged with FELONY TORTURE for her special needs dog, Romeo. PACC Rescue told her about their miracle vets, but that she had to sign the dog over to them. Instead of trying to get him additional treatment as they had promised, the rescue reported Debbie and had Romeo promptly euthanized. Animal Control Officer Sharon Dauley showed up at her house on Christmas Eve. The Commonwealth later reduced the charged and Debbie won her case. These are just some of the stories of how innocent owners have been treated in Virginia. HB 223 will only exacerbate the current problem of heavy-handed enforcement. Please oppose this bill and help us bring sunlight to these issues. You have the power to make a difference. Please don't look the other way. Sincerely, Heidi Crosky, Virginia Animal Owners Alliance

Comments Document

Public Citizen submits this testimony in support of H.B. 697. On behalf of our 16,859 members and activists in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and more than 500,000 supporters nationwide, Public Citizen encourages the Committee on Courts of Justice to advance H.B. 697, a legislative proposal to address the dangers of deceptive and fraudulent computer-generated deepfakes. Extraordinary advances in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) now provide any person with the means to produce computer-generated fake images, audio or videos of individuals doing or saying things that they never actually did or said. This fabricated content, also known as “deepfakes” can be used to fraudulently misrepresent the actions of another person. Deepfake technology is rapidly improving. Technologists have said that soon, even they will not be able to tell what is real content versus a deepfake. In the hands of bad actors - this technology can be used in a myriad of ways to cause significant harm. Two of the many realms in which we are already seeing deepfakes being used to cause harm are in regards to non-consensual sexual images and political communications. Sexual deepfakes are fabricated images and videos that depict individuals naked and/or performing a sexual acts. Hundreds of thousands of these have been created and uploaded to the internet without the victim’s consent. The vast majority of those targeted are women and children. Recently, sexual deepfakes of Taylor Swift were circulated widely which led to a public outcry. However, this is happening frequently to everyday people. Take, for example. 14 year old Francesca Mani who learned that boys at her highschool had circulated sexual deepfakes of her and 30 other girls. Deepfake technology also has some particularly alarming implications in the realm of elections as well. A well timed deepfake could be used to swing the outcome of an election. Two days before Slovakia’s elections, a fraudulent audio deepfake was disseminated on social media of the leader of the Progressive Slovakia party purportedly discussing ways to rig the election. It is believed that this deepfake influenced the outcome of the Slovakian election. We also saw rampant use of deepfakes in recent major elections in Argentina and Turkey as well. The rapid development of deepfake technology also threatens to further weaken social trust in our society. As deepfakes become more common, it will become more difficult for people to determine what is real and what is fabricated content. Additionally, it will become easier for bad actors to refute real visual or audio evidence of their bad behavior, by claiming it is a deepfake. All of this will serve to undermine public trust in news and information. Deepfakes pose very real and present threats to our society. We must have common sense safeguards in place to prevent abuse of this technology bad actors. New legislation, like H.B. 697, is needed to regulate the use of deepfakes in our society. Public Citizen strongly urges the Committee on Courts of Justice to move H.B. 697 forward as an important step towards putting critical protections in place to protect Virginians from the harms of deepfakes.

Public Citizen submits this testimony in support of H.B. 697. On behalf of our 16,859 members and activists in the Commonwealth of Virginia, and more than 500,000 supporters nationwide, Public Citizen encourages the Committee on Courts of Justice to advance H.B. 697, a legislative proposal to address the dangers of deceptive and fraudulent computer-generated deepfakes. Extraordinary advances in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) now provide any person with the means to produce computer-generated fake images, audio or videos of individuals doing or saying things that they never actually did or said. This fabricated content, also known as “deepfakes” can be used to fraudulently misrepresent the actions of another person. Deepfake technology is rapidly improving. Technologists have said that soon, even they will not be able to tell what is real content versus a deepfake. In the hands of bad actors - this technology can be used in a myriad of ways to cause significant harm. Two of the many realms in which we are already seeing deepfakes being used to cause harm are in regards to non-consensual sexual images and political communications. Sexual deepfakes are fabricated images and videos that depict individuals naked and/or performing a sexual acts. Hundreds of thousands of these have been created and uploaded to the internet without the victim’s consent. The vast majority of those targeted are women and children. Recently, sexual deepfakes of Taylor Swift were circulated widely which led to a public outcry. However, this is happening frequently to everyday people. Take, for example. 14 year old Francesca Mani who learned that boys at her highschool had circulated sexual deepfakes of her and 30 other girls. Deepfake technology also has some particularly alarming implications in the realm of elections as well. A well timed deepfake could be used to swing the outcome of an election. Two days before Slovakia’s elections, a fraudulent audio deepfake was disseminated on social media of the leader of the Progressive Slovakia party purportedly discussing ways to rig the election. It is believed that this deepfake influenced the outcome of the Slovakian election. We also saw rampant use of deepfakes in recent major elections in Argentina and Turkey as well. The rapid development of deepfake technology also threatens to further weaken social trust in our society. As deepfakes become more common, it will become more difficult for people to determine what is real and what is fabricated content. Additionally, it will become easier for bad actors to refute real visual or audio evidence of their bad behavior, by claiming it is a deepfake. All of this will serve to undermine public trust in news and information. Deepfakes pose very real and present threats to our society. We must have common sense safeguards in place to prevent abuse of this technology bad actors. New legislation, like H.B. 697, is needed to regulate the use of deepfakes in our society. Public Citizen strongly urges the Committee on Courts of Justice to move H.B. 697 forward as an important step towards putting critical protections in place to protect Virginians from the harms of deepfakes.