͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌ ͏‌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]]

​​[link removed] [[link removed]]
Our Campaign to Eradicate Cockfighting and Dogfighting Builds Momentum, But We Need Your Help
Congress must hear from us to understand the urgency of the border crisis with animal fighting
Dear friend,
There so much news for me to report to you on our Animal Fighting Is the Pits [[link removed]] campaign.
But first, will you make a contribution of $ or more today to support this critical work? [[link removed]]
DONATE NOW [[link removed]]

*
We
now
have
600
agencies,
associations,
and
organizations
backing
the
FIGHT
Act
(H.R.
2742/S.
1529),
and
passing
that
bill
is
an
urgent
priority
for
us.
Just
this
week,
the
National
Sheriffs’
Association
endorsed
the
FIGHT
Act,
joining
the
National
District
Attorneys
Association
in
calling
on
Congress
to
pass
this
critical
legislation.
These
two
agencies
represent
more
than
5,000
elected
law
enforcement
officers
covering
every
county
in
the
United
States.
*
We
are
seeing
a
surge
in
arrests
for
dogfighting
and
cockfighting
throughout
the
nation.
A
dogfighting
arrest
in
Louisville
this
week.
A
cockfighting
bust
in
Shawnee
County,
Kansas,
and
literally
hundreds
of
other
interdictions
of
these
animal
fighting
crimes,
mainly
by
local
law
enforcement
but
with
more
federal
enforcement
actions
than
ever.
*
We
are
turning
back
efforts
to
weaken
anti-cockfighting
laws,
and
we
did
so
again
in
Oklahoma
in
its
legislative
session
this
year.
In
fact,
in
Oklahoma,
where
the
cockfighters
seemed
to
have
corrupted
the
Atoka
County
sheriff,
that
sheriff
lost
his
race
for
re-election
last
week.
I
must
say
that
any
elected
official
in
America—whether
a
lawmaker,
law
enforcement
officer
or
judge—has
to
be
out
of
his
or
her
mind
to
associate
with
animal
fighters.
There’s
almost
no
popular
support
in
America
for
animal
fighting
and
the
barbarism
and
criminality
that
infests
the
enterprise.

Animal fighting is a morally settled issue in our nation. Dogs placed in a pit, succumbing to blood loss or perhaps suffocation when his opponent has him by the throat and won’t let go. Birds wounded by knives and curved ice picks affixed to the animals’ legs. The weapons pierce the skin and cut in a blur. Gouged eyes, punctured hearts or lungs. Slashing wounds that open up arteries.

Make no mistake, these are terrible ways to die. Traumatic. Painful. Animals terror-stricken. And for what? For the thrill of the bloodletting and the illegal gambling that motivates the core animal-cruelty crime.

It’s perhaps the most despicable and malevolent form of animal cruelty in our nation. And that’s saying something.

People Die at Animal Fighting Derbies, Too

As I said, it turns out that non-human animals are not the only victims.

Earlier this year, at a cockfight in Mexico, six people were killed and 14 wounded when cartel-on-cartel violence broke out at the spectacle of cruelty. One of the dead was a 16-year-old boy from Washington State, killed in a hail of bullets fired from automatic weapons. His father was shot and injured.

You might ask, what are Americans doing at a cockfight in Mexico?

The reality is, Americans are the major suppliers of fighting animals to the cartel-controlled cockfighting pits throughout Mexico. This is an illicit trade every bit as ugly and violent as the drug trade, and these two forms of trafficking are bound together.

U.S.-based cockfighters breed fighting birds by the hundreds of thousands, and the cartels run through the animals in orgies of animal violence at cockfighting pits with stadium seating. They enjoy the bloodletting and the gambling, deadening their hearts even more to the suffering of others.

Prior to that latest mass shooting, there were 20 people killed in a separate massacre at a cockfight, and an American from Chicago was one of the victims.

And shootings occur on our side of the border as well. A referee shot at a cockfight in Miami. A spectator shot at a cockfight in Dallas. A mass shooting at a cockfight outside of Honolulu, with two dead and three wounded.

And dogfighting may be even worse.

In Mississippi, just two months ago, two men were shot and killed execution style.

We have multiple problems at the Southern border, and one of those problems is the trafficking of fighting animals back and forth. This trafficking comes with cruelty, chaos, and crime, and it spills over into our communities.

I am shouting from the rooftops to lawmakers about the importance of passing the FIGHT Act. All of this cruelty and mayhem must end! This crime wave must be stopped.

The people conducting these crimes are a menace to our society. But while we are making unmistakable progress, there’s so much more to be done. Animal fighting won’t stop unless we get off of the sidelines and get involved in reporting the crimes, passing the FIGHT Act, and creating a culture of zero tolerance for these staged spectacles.

It's critical that we finish off animal fighting.

Because of our pushing them to act, federal and state authorities have made a range of arrests, including that of a senior official who worked at the Pentagon and ran an alleged dogfighting operation for more than 20 years ! But these enforcement actions must increase manifold until the animal fighters get the message that continuing with their lawlessness will come with lasting and severe consequences.

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. We have a rewards program that offers cash to tipsters who alert us or law enforcement to these intentional crimes against animals. They can email us here. [[email protected]]

There Are Major Gaps in Enforcement; Organized Criminals Continue to Operate

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. In fact, at the end of 2023, we called out Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt for issuing a video tribute to the cockfighters in the Sooner State.

It's spotty enforcement of anti-animal-fighting laws that we’ve identified as a core problem. And that’s also why we are working to pass the FIGHT Act to give law enforcement more tools to bring down the dogfighters and cockfighters. We are so grateful to Senators Cory Booker, D-N.J., and John Kennedy, R-La., and Representatives Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., for leading this fight in Congress.

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 dogfights and cockfights, which is a $12-billion-plus enterprise in the Philippines alone. And it allows for the forfeiture of property and other assets used in the commission of an animal-fighting crime. That kind of penalty—losing a house or a truck—will be felt by any animal fighter.

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 features of the organized crimes of dogfighting and cockfighting.

I hope you’ll write your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act.

Contact your federal lawmakers and urge them to cosponsor the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (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? [[link removed]]

DONATE NOW [[link removed]]

For the animals,

Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Animal Wellness Action
[[link removed]] DONATE NOW [[link removed]]
[[link removed]] WEBSITE [[link removed]]
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Animal Wellness Action | 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE #136 | Washington, DC 20003
If you would like to manage your subscription or contribution history, please log into your self-service portal here. [[link removed]]
If you need to you can unsubscribe here: unsubscribe: [link removed]
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