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Dear Friend,
Like never before, sheriffs and prosecutors across the nation are swinging behind our efforts to crack down on the scourges of cockfighting and dogfighting. Law enforcement agencies constitute 400 of the 1,000 agencies and organizations backing the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act.
Put simply, the FIGHT Act seeks to bury dogfighting and cockfighting. To pull staged animal fighting up by the roots. To sweep these malicious forms of cruelty into the dustbin of history.
In his letter to Oklahoma’s congressional delegation, Kyle Keller of the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association — which represents 77 elected county sheriffs, most of them rural and nearly all of them Republican — doesn’t hedge on the issue:
Cockfighting pits are often centers of gambling, narcotics, and violence, drawing offenders from across state lines. Families living near these operations are exposed to danger, and communities are degraded by the criminal culture that accompanies them. The movement of fighting birds across state lines is a disease vector which threatens agricultural poultry operations.
The OSA joins 27 other state sheriffs’ associations from across the country, including those from Alabama, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Texas. “A significant part of law enforcement work involves deterrence,” said Sheriff John Zechman, president of the Sheriffs’ Association of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. “Strengthening federal law and intimidating criminals, reminding them that the costs of their conduct will threaten their freedom, may drive some of these people out of business.”
In Iowa, the North Central Poultry Association, which represents the state’s enormous laying hen industry, backs the measure because of the disease threats posed by trafficking of cockfighting birds. And Iowa’s sheriffs from all 99 counties are with them. “Dogfighting and cockfighting are inhumane and repugnant activities, bound up with other crimes and a direct threat to our poultry industry,” said Sgt. Shawn Ireland on behalf of the Iowa State Sheriffs’ and Deputies Association.
The National Sheriffs’ Association and the National District Attorneys’ Association — representing the 5,000 elected law enforcement personnel who are the heart of our enforcement community — have endorsed the FIGHT Act, too. They know animal fighting is dangerous conduct that erodes the safety and civility in our communities.
The FIGHT Act (H.R. 3946 / S. 1454), led by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., would:
* Ban online gambling on animal fights;
* Stop the smuggling of roosters through the U.S. Postal Service;
* Give law-abiding citizens the right to seek civil injunctive relief against animal fighters who wreak havoc on their communities; and
* Strengthen criminal forfeiture laws to include property illegally used to commit animal fighting crimes.
When sheriffs, prosecutors, farmers, and animal advocates all say the same thing — that it’s time to end animal fighting once and for all — it’s time for Congress to listen. These are practices illegal on every inch of U.S. soil, but they are shockingly widespread. There are thousands of illegal dogfighting networks, and perhaps as many as 20 million fighting birds raised in the U.S. are trafficked to illegal fighting pits in our homeland and all across the world.
That said, never has there been more attention paid by law enforcement to these crimes, and there are arrests now made every week. But we need to step it up to dismantle these organized criminal networks, which are often run by cartels and gangs at home and abroad and which are knowingly breaking the law on an unimaginable scale.
The FIGHT Act gives us more tools, and the Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act and the FBI Animal Cruelty Taskforce Act give us more law enforcement personnel who can focus on these crimes. Those latter bills are also an important part of our national legislative agenda.
Hundreds of law enforcement agencies, representing all law enforcement in the nation, are asking Congress to understand the corrosive features of animal fighting. Will Congress heed their call?
Please, stand with us in urging lawmakers to pass the FIGHT Act now. With the united backing of law enforcement and citizens across this country, we can stop the cruelty, shut down the crime, and make our communities safer for everyone. [[link removed]]

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Today, please let your lawmakers know you care and you, too, want action on the FIGHT Act.
For the animals,
Wayne Pacelle [[link removed]] Wayne Pacelle
President
Center for a Humane Economy
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