͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌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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Cockfighting Season and Lawlessness Set to Start Around Thanksgiving We need to redouble efforts to pass the FIGHT Act in Congress [[link removed]]
Dear John,
The dogfighters never give the animals a break. They stage fights from New Year’s Day to New Year’s Eve in the dark corners where they operate. Their malice is so thick you can touch it.
The good news is, we’ve seen some major busts of dogfighters in recent weeks under the federal anti-animal fighting law we’ve worked to build, and that includes a senior official who worked at the Pentagon.
On the other hand, cockfighters have an eight-month fighting season—from Thanksgiving to the end of July—because starting at the end of July, the birds go through an 8- to 12-week molt and regenerate their feathers. That means the cockfighting arenas have been quiet for the last three months. But within days, the cockfighters will sharpen the knives and gaffs they affix to the birds’ legs and ready the animals for lethal combat as a spectator sport.
All of this intentional cruelty makes me sick. But it also makes me angry and determined. And I hope it inspires the same reaction in you.
We’ve been shouting from the rooftops about the widespread nature of illicit dogfighting and cockfighting in the United States. We’ve been investigating these crimes and delivering a roadmap for enforcement to federal and state authorities.
Indeed, our Animal Fighting Is the Pits [[link removed]] campaign is designed to eradicate staged fights involving dogs or roosters with knives strapped to their legs.
We’ve long known that good laws are not enough. We need more enforcement of the law. That’s why we applaud the FBI and other federal agencies for breaking up some dogfighting and cockfighting rings I touched on above.
But there are vast stretches of the United States without any meaningful enforcement and where the animal fighters operate with impunity. To our great dismay, for instance, the federal government has conducted no enforcement actions against animal fighting in Oklahoma, Guam, or Puerto Rico, even though we know where the animal fighters operate.
It's spotty enforcement and funding for enforcement that we are targeting. That’s why last week we pushed, and won passage of, an amendment to secure at least $1 million in enforcement spending by the USDA’s law-enforcement arm for animal fighting cases.
And that’s also why we are working to strengthen the federal law and to give law enforcement more tools to bring down the dogfighters and cockfighters. That measure is the FIGHT Act—bipartisan legislation in the House and Senate to tackle these problems.
There are a number of provisions in the FIGHT Act, but one of the most important is to create a private right of action against animal fighters. If the measure passes, citizens can sue dogfighters and cockfighters in civil court if law enforcement doesn’t act on credible information about illegal fighting activities.
The FIGHT Act also bans gambling on on-line cockfights, which is a $10-billion-plus enterprise in the Philippines alone. And it allows for the forfeiture of property and other possessions used in the commission of an animal-fighting crime.
It was a major moment when we passed a law in Congress in 2018 to ban animal fighting everywhere in the United States. But now we are locked onto the task of enforcement and shutting down the pits, the gamecock farms, the pit bull yards, and all of the other cogs of animal fighting.
I hope you’ll write your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act. [[link removed]]
WRITE TO YOUR LAWMAKERS [[link removed]]
And I also hope you’ll donate today to support our Animal Fighting Is the Pits campaign. If we cannot stop these forms of despicable and illegal cruelty, how can we address other structural problems such as factory farming, animal testing, the fur trade, and others?
We must finish off animal fighting. Will you commit to joining us in this task? [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
For the animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
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