͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌To prevent cruelty to animals, we promote enacting and enforcing good public policies. To enact good laws, we must elect good lawmakers, and that’s why we remind voters which candidates care about our issues and which ones don’t. If you’d like to unsubscribe, click here. [[link removed]]

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URGENT ACTION NEEDED: Let’s defeat animal fighting for good [[link removed]]
Dear John,
When it comes to animal cruelty, Animal Wellness Action does not stand on the sidelines. We are on the playing field and in the thick of the action.
That’s especially true for our battle against the horrors of cockfighting and dogfighting.
Today, I am pleased to tell you that about 20 U.S. Representatives, evenly divided by political party and led by Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon. They have introduced national legislation to take an enormous bite out of the organized criminal networks of dogfighters and cockfighters.
This national legislative initiative comes right on the heels of our work to defeat two bills in Oklahoma that would have rolled back the state’s landmark anti-cockfighting law. And it comes even as law enforcement officers are arresting illegal animal fighters from Marlboro County in South Carolina to Kern County in California.
Our fight is multi-dimensional, but the goal is simple: end cockfighting and end dogfighting in every dark corner where it festers.
New Federal Legislation — the FIGHT Act — Introduced
We are working to investigate animal-fighting crimes and encourage law enforcement to arrest perpetrators or scare these organized criminals into shutting down their fighting arenas and their illegal breeding and training operations. And we are always striving to make state and federal anti-cruelty laws tougher and to bite with more force. That’s why I’m so excited to tell you about the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act just introduced in Congress.
I am glad that our existing federal law against animal fighting is strong and comprehensive. But it can be even stronger, and the FIGHT Act will make it so by enhancing the capacity of federal law enforcement personnel 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.
Let’s face it. The cockfighters and dogfighters do their brutish work for the money. They risk their freedom to gamble on animal fights and to sell the animals into the trade.
Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte issued a ban on online betting on cockfights in that country 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 betting 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. We don’t want any of this crime or cruelty in our nation.
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 threaten 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 write to your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act. [[link removed]]
TAKE ACTION [[link removed]]
And I hope you’ll donate to our “Animal Fighting Is the Pits” campaign today. It’s a fight we cannot afford to lose. [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
Thanks for being in this fight with us.
For the animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
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Animal Wellness Action
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United States
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