Any farmer with two chickens has watched a cockfight. Is there something in the bill that prevents their punishment?
Depending on the severity of the abuse, that can be charged as a felony offense. I know of one local case where the parents are facing multiple felony counts, and the D.A. is not interested in plea negotiations. He intends to try the case, and if he wins it, those parents will be going to prison for a very long time.
Yes, based on the extant language of the Animal Welfare Act.
You can read the amendments here beginning on 913. I’m not sure exactly where the $100,000 fine comes from since it’s not in the bill.
I would think cock fighting is one of the relatively few crimes that might actually be able to be deterred with harsh sentences. No one needs to do it, nor does it happen by accident, in the heat of passion, or because you’re hungry and desperate. I feel little sympathy for those attending. The maximum penalty is not the issue in most cases, as few would ever get the max. What matters more is where they put it on the federal sentencing guidelines grid.
To the suggestion we deal with it through civil forfeiture, that’s generally a terrible idea. Giving cops a profit motive for taking other people’s property has led to far more problems than it has solved.
There was supposed to be a link in this sentence.
you make some good points. i’m more thinking 30 days confinement but i agree with your overall post.
Michael Vick did a lot more than just watch a single dog fight. A sentence of 1 year in prison and $100,000 fine doesn’t seem unreasonable for someone who organized a cock fight, but does appear on the high side for a mere spectator.
I understand the expansive power of the commerce clause and all, but how does observing my local rooster fight substantially affect interstate commerce? Were there findings of fact in the bill?
They’re chickens. We kill and eat millions of chickens every day. Bwaaawwk bwaaawwk. To outlaw cockfighting is the most insane, idiotic, stupidest idea in history.
My opinion: No, it should not be.
In fact, it’s almost a certainty that any such sentence would probably be overturned upon appeal as it is far more than many people receive for far more grave felonies. A first time offender wouldn’t draw it and it would likely only be used against a predicate felon who the prosecution was attempting to intimidate or force into cooperation.
The penal system is full to overflowing now. Putting more people in jail for what is (at best) a gross misdemeanor seems to run counter to the logic of reducing prison overpopulation.
Laws against cockfighting apply in all 50 states, with the latest being Louisiana, effective in 2008. Cockfights typically involve attaching metal knives to the bird’s legs, making the interaction far more grisly than would occur in nature.
That said, I don’t care that much, certainly not enough to throw spectators in jail for a year or even a month. $200 or as high as $500? Sure.
The people pushing it were the Humane Society and the Society for Prevention for Cruelty to Animals. Not Neighborhood Watch.
If crime was the consideration, we should legalize and regulate cockfighting. Sort of like boxing. Cockfighting attracts crime because it’s conducted in illegal venues where people don’t like to call the cops.
And now the news
From the ASPCA: the two champions of this measure were Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Tom Marino (R-PA). Steve King, R or Iowa, proposed conflicting legislation. If I understand it correctly, Mr. King’s idea was to ban states from passing laws related to the production of agricultural products “—a term so broad that it could include farm animals and dogs in puppy mills.” Er, that goes too far as well IMHO. I don’t have a problem with state level animal cruelty legislation, some of which has been on the books for over a hundred years, AFAIK. Heck, I don’t have a problem with federal legislation either, provided it doesn’t involve thumbscrews or thrown away keys.
What’s cockfight bust look like? CNN and ABC report. The Feds and NYPD swooped into an all-night cockfighting party, detaining and questioning 70 spectators and booking 8-9 who brought their own birds. A pet shop and a cockfight farm were also busted. 3000 roosters in cages were captured and taken into custody. Admission to the event was $20. The cockfighting that is, not the arrests.
California cockfighting busts: news roundup: CBS Los Angeles - Breaking Local News, Weather & Investigations In 2012, Governor Brown signed a law doubling penalties for staging a cockfight: The governor announced Friday that he signed SB1145 by Hemet Republican Sen. Bill Emmerson. The bill raises the fine for anyone convicted of cockfighting from a maximum of $5,000 to $10,000.
The bill also increases fines on other animal fighting, such as bears and dogs. Spectators could face as many as six months in jail and a fine of $5,000, up from $1,000.
The fines will be raised starting next year.
California charges first-time offenders with a misdemeanor and some advocates say the punishment should be raised to a felony. But since the state is looking to reduce prison costs, supporters pushed for increasing fines rather than penalties. Well at least first-timers are distinguished from two-time losers.
Sympathetic photo journalism of cockfighting abroad: The Brutal World of Cock Fighting [PHOTOS] - Business Insider
Not particularly, no. I don’t like it, but I care far less about roosters killing each other than I do about dogs maiming or killing people.
ok. i’d say that is a pretty hard position to argue against.
they’re chickens!
Dogfighting does not necessarily involve large dogs…only some of the breeds typically used would qualify as “large.” (Fila Brasileros, for example.) More to the point, dogfighting means forcing (not necessarily training) dogs to fight other dogs, not humans. Dogfighters have a long tradition of killing “manbiters,” any dog that bites the human handler(s). If these dogs don’t attack the people who are abusing them – in the Michael Vick case, he and his cronies killed pit bulls with their bare hands and the dogs did not fight back – they’re unlikely to be a public menace.
Just as dogs trained to attack quail don’t attack humans, just as dogs trained to attack rats don’t attack humans, dogs “trained” or forced to fight other dogs don’t mistake humans for dogs.
The public safety hazards associated with dogfighting come mostly from the humans involved. Sociopaths are dangerous.
There are in the original Animal Welfare Act, linked above.
All I can see is that the animal fighting venture, if state law doesn’t prohibit it, must be using animals that have traveled in interstate commerce. Did I miss something?
If not, then the “if state law doesn’t prohibit it” clause is odd. There is no exception to enumerated powers so long as state law doesn’t speak on the subject. Further it would seem to implicitly contain a mens rea requirement. If I’m watching a cock fight, it would seem that in order to be charged federally I must know or have reason to know that one of the birds came from out of state.
Further, simply watching or bringing a minor to a cockfight is not economic activity per se. Isn’t this just like Lopez and Morrison where the feds are outlawing activity one step removed from economic activity?
You’re talking the mens rea requirement a bit far. No court is going to hold that a defendant must intend to commit a crime involving interstate commerce. The interstate commerce requirement merely goes to Congress’ authority to regulate the crime.
If I believed in an afterlife of rewards/punishments, I’d just about be okay with an eternity in hell for countenancing a cockfight staged for the purposes of entertainment/gaming (or a dogfight).
As it is, I guess I have to be satisfied with the maximum penalty of they have to be THEM (people who countenance cockfights) for the rest of their lives.
And a coupla hundred bucks and a little time behind bars for the non-metaphysical penalties.
I’ll just point out that, in general, misdemeanors are crimes that are punishable by up to a year in jail. That includes crimes such as disorderly conduct, public intoxication, loitering, theft under $100, shoplifting, trespassing, and a huge host of other crimes. So, in theory, taking a candy bar from a store can be punished by a year in jail.
But absent something like a massive criminal history or horrible outcomes of the actions, that never happens. I could not find anyone sentenced to a year in prison in for watching cockfighting, and I would be shocked if it ever happened.
Decrying the maximum penalty that a crime could possibly, but never actually has, be punished with, seems to be jumping the gun a bit to me. Let me know when it actually happens.