Bill seeks to strengthen ability to shutdown illegal animal fights

When Arizona residents outlawed rooster fighting in 1998, they made their feelings known about the controversial practice.

More than two decades later, however, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department joins law enforcement across the state in still battling the illegal “sport”.

As a result, the department, along with members of the Arizona Sheriff’s Association, have stepped up to support a federal bill that could strengthen enforcement, the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, according to a news release from Washington-based non-profit Animal Wellness Action.

This act would help departments enforce current laws by banning online gambling on animal fights; halting the shipment of mature roosters (chickens only) through the U.S. Postal Service and enhancing criminal forfeiture penalties to include real property for those convicted of animal fighting crimes.

Last month, a total of 271 fighting roosters and four dogs were seized at a home on Tucson’s southeast side after a report of a utility service theft. Deputies at the scene noticed hundreds of suspected fighting roosters on the property.

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“An operation with 271 birds is a serious fighting setting, and we applaud Pima County Sheriff’s deputies for their keen policing instincts in sniffing out this criminal enterprise and then shuttering it,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, which is leading a national campaign against staged animal fighting.

Animal fighting is organized crime linked to illegal weapons and gambling, money laundering and drug trafficking, and undermines the safety of communities, Pacelle said.

“Cockfighting is a crime of violence, and it is bound up with other crimes, including border crimes like illegal trafficking of animals and narcotics,” Pacelle said. “We have a long way to go before these crime networks are dismantled, and the FIGHT Act provides the tools to do exactly that.”

Yavapai County Sheriff, David Rhodes, who endorses the FIGHT Act, said that it will “significantly bolster our collective efforts to eradicate brutal animal cruelty and associated crimes.”

U.S. Representatives from Arizona, Juan Ciscomani, David Schweikert, and Greg Stanto, are cosponsors of the act, says Animal Wellness Action.