Dear John,
Animal Wellness Action just fought just fought attempts in Oklahoma to roll back the block and to repeal the state’s voter-approved law that bars the heinous practice of cockfighting. There’s still one bill that’s alive at the state capitol in Oklahoma City to weaken the anti-dogfighting law! You can be sure we’ll everything we can to block that maneuver and to preserve all of our anti-cruelty laws in every state.
But at the same that that we are playing defense, we are also going on the offense. Our goal is nothing short of eradicating all forms of staged animal fighting — eliminating the practice in every dark corner where it festers.
New Federal Legislation — the FIGHT Act — to be Introduced
We are poised to introduce a major rewrite of our federal law against animal fighting, enhancing capacity for federal law enforcement and even private citizens to take action against dogfighters and cockfighters.
Here’s what our new measure will do:
- establish a national ban on gambling on animal fighting
- ban shipping adult fighting animals through the U.S. mail
- allow private citizens to initiate civil actions against animal fighters when law enforcement doesn’t act on reliable information.
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte issued a ban on online betting at cockfights months ago after dozens of people involved in cockfights were kidnapped and never heard from again! One woman, who had unpaid gambling debts, reportedly sold her child to pay off her bets! These sites are available to U.S. gamblers, and while it is impossible to track the scale, it’s clear such online gambling on cockfighting is surging in the United States.
Cockfighting and dogfighting are both barbaric in the extreme, but cockfighting has an additional feature that makes it even more virulent. Cockfighting and the trafficking of fighting animals threatens to spread avian influenza and other diseases.
The United States is already experiencing a dangerous and enormously costly outbreak of avian influenza. Cockfighting could extend the duration and geography of the outbreak, even making the virus more lethal and more transmissible to humans.
We’ll stop dogfighting and cockfighting only when we can nab the kingpins, shut down the pits, seize the live contraband, and penalize the whole cast of characters involved.
The introduction of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking Act offers the prospect of doing just that.
I hope you’ll donate to our “Animal Fighting is the Pits” campaign today. It’s a fight we cannot afford to lose.
For the animals,
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Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
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