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CAUTION: There may be images which are disturbing to some individuals. Viewer discretion is advised.
Voices from The HSUS (Humane Society of the United States)
Fighting the Bad Fights
Since 1976, federal law has prohibited transporting animals for fighting purposes across state lines or national borders. But federal authorities have pursued no more than a handful of dogfighting and cockfighting cases, despite repeated violations of the law across the country, frequent tips from informants, and requests to assist with state and local prosecutions.
That's largely because the crime of animal fighting carries only misdemeanor penalties under federal law. Prosecutors are reluctant to take such cases, and even when they do, the small fines and risk of minimal jail time do not serve as meaningful deterrents for those engaged in high stakes animal fighting enterprises; they're considered merely a "cost of doing business.”
The “winner”? of a Dog Fight
For a number of years, Congress has tried to raise the bar. In 2001, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate each passed provisions as part of their farm bills to upgrade the penalties for federal animal fighting violations to felony level. Although the House and Senate provisions were identical and should not have been subject to further discussion, they were stripped out when a key House Senate conference committee met to reconcile differences in their respective farm bills.
Legislation to establish felony penalties has been reintroduced several times and garnered broad bipartisan support passing the Senate as an amendment to another bill in 2003 and winning approval in a key House committee in 2004 but has not yet made it over the finish line.
Now the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act is poised for final action. The Senate version, S. 382, introduced by Sen. John Ensign (RNV)one of two veterinarians in Congress was approved unanimously in April 2005 and has 50 cosponsors. An identical House bill, H.R. 817, introduced by Rep. Mark Green (RWI), has 232 cosponsors (more than half the House) and had a strong hearing in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security on May 18.
In his testimony at the hearing, HSUS president and CEO Wayne Pacelle emphasized discrepancies among existing laws. Though animal fighting was a felony in only one state when Congress first enacted its misdemeanor law in 1976, the picture is quite different today: dogfighting is a felony in 48 states, and cockfighting is a felony in 32.
"State laws commonly authorize jail time of three to five years or more for animal fighting," said Pacelle. "The Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act brings federal law in line with state laws and other federal laws related to animal cruelty."
This legislation has been endorsed by the National Sheriffs' Association and 390 state and local sheriff and police departments covering all 50 states. Law enforcement professionals know that animal fighting often involves movement of animals across interstate and international borders, so they can't do the job on their own. They need the federal government to do its part to curb this illegal activity.
The Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act also has the support of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Chicken Council. In addition to humane concerns, these and other agencies are worried about the potential for cockfighting to spread virulent diseases and outbreak of a poultry disease spread by cockfighters in 2002 and 2003 cost taxpayers $200 million to contain, and at least eight people in Asia are believed to have died from bird flu due to cockfighting exposure in 2004.
It's time for the House to act so the federal animal fighting felony bill can be signed into law soon. For more information, go to
https://community.hsus.org/ cam paign/endanimalfighting
Mimi Brody
Director of Federal Affairs
The Humane Society of the United States
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Excerpts from Animal Sheltering, July | August 2006:
Sometimes, it’s a Family Affair:
I don’t think it was specifically mentioned in this HSUS article, but as I’ve heard of dogfighting, they are fights to the death. Therefore, to have a picture of a dog in a fight means it has to be the winner of the dogfight, right? I’d think that would apply to the dog in the above picture. As well as applying to the two following ones, accompanied by a short except of the article from Animal Sheltering, July-August 2006:
Looking at the animals who've experienced the brutality of the pit, their torn mouths, gaping body wounds, broken bones and teeth, the burns and scars inflicted on them by owners who were angry when they didn't perform one might wonder if the folks who celebrate the history of dogfighting are also nostalgic for other bygone historical practices, like witchburning and public stoning.
While some "dogmen" can trace the bloodlines of their animals through generations, the bloodsport of dogfighting doesn't take root only through direct instruction by longtime enthusiasts passing "the tradition" on to their descendants. In some areas, dogfighting springs up more loosely, a symptom of other social ills such as street gangs, illegal guns, and drugs. While Giacoppo has met dogfighters who come from a professional family tradition, he's also seen the variation of the bloodsport that has become most prevalent over the past few decades: streetfighting, a loose and spontaneous extension of the more organized rules and contracts driven professional form.
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We are NOT immune from this sort of activity in our own rural areas here in upstate New York, so I hope you’ll support the aforementioned bill to become a law, and likewise report any suspicions about such activity. Please report ALL animal cruelty to your local officials, whose locations you can find on the entry page to this web site.
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Animal Cruelty must stop! Period. As mentioned in another are of this site, those who abuse animals are often also abusers of children, women, spouses, anyone they find they can control. They are not your run of the mill playground bullies.
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