Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to increase penalties for animal fighting. 

HR 817 (the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act) has now been introduced in the House of Representatives. This act would increase the penalties for bird fighting and dog fighting.

Animal fighting is a viciously cruel, inhumane, blood sport that involves severely mistreating animals to increase their aggressiveness, then encouraging them to continue fighting even after they've suffered severe injuries – and very often these fights are ‘to the death.’   Animal fighting includes dog vs. dog, dog vs. hog, and bird vs. bird fighting.

Dog fighting is a sadistic ‘contest’ in which two dogs (or a dog and a hog) —specifically abused, conditioned, half-starved, pumped full of drugs to make them more aggressive, and trained to fight—are placed in a pit (generally a small arena enclosed by plywood walls) to fight each other for spectators' gambling and entertainment purposes.

These fights average nearly an hour in length and can often last more than two hours. And they end when one of the animals is no longer willing or able to continue – or is dead.

And animals used in these events often die of blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion, or infection hours or even days after the fight.

Very sadly, other animals are often sacrificed as well. Some owners even ‘train’ their dogs for these fights using smaller animals such as cats, rabbits, or puppies. And horrifically, these ‘bait’ animals are often obtained by these vicious individuals who eagerly answer advertisements for ‘free animal to good home.’

In addition, there are increasing reports of unorganized, more spontaneous, street dog fighting in urban areas.

No animal is born inherently vicious; vicious human beings make them so.

Currently, dog fighting is illegal in all 50 states, and cockfighting is illegal in all states except Louisiana and New Mexico, yet it is currently on the rise.  Prosecutors are often reluctant to spend time and resources on these awful cases when there are only weak misdemeanor penalties available to them.

On the federal level, the current law prohibits sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal-fighting venture if any of the animals in the venture have been moved in interstate commerce.

However, such an offense is currently only a misdemeanor.

HR 817 would increase the penalties for this crime to a felony offense.  This means that if animal fighting is only a misdemeanor in your state, but the animals involved were transported in interstate commerce, the sponsoring or exhibition of an animal fight would be deemed a federal felony offense.

Additionally, the bill would prohibit the sale, purchase, transportation, or delivery in interstate or foreign commerce of any knife, gaff, or other sharp instrument used in barbaric bird-fighting ventures. 

I believe that The Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act is urgently needed and that it would more properly penalize, and hopefully deter, more people from victimizing animals and engaging them in the brutal ‘sport’ of animal fighting.

Please contact your representative now and urge him or her to support and co-sponsor HR 817 – for the animals of the world.

To learn more, please visit the website listed below: