HSUS Tennessee director smacks down cockfighters in newspaper column

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090110/OPINION01/901100336/1008


January 10, 2009
Fights' operators game the systemBy Leighann McCollum

Many people were shocked when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration arrested a group of Middle Tennessee cockfighters who were associated with a Mexican drug gang called the Gulf Cartel.

However, this came as no surprise to the Humane Society of the United States. For years we have noted that cockfighting goes hand in hand with a range of crimes including, but not limited to, the drug trade, illegal gambling and, of course, animal cruelty.

Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky are at the heart of what we at the HSUS call "the cockfighting corridor."

While 37 states punish cockfighting as a felony, the cockfighting corridor houses the majority of states with weak penalties for this crime.

Cockfighters purposely set up their criminal operations in jurisdictions with the weakest penalties for animal fighting. This allows any misdemeanor fine to be more than offset by their potential gambling winnings.

Here are some recent examples. The Louisiana cockfighting ban went into effect in August 2008, while at roughly the same time Virginia made cockfighting a felony.

We have learned of four cockfighting pits from those two states that have since moved to the cockfighting corridor. Anemic penalties for cockfighting have caused these states to act as a magnet for cockfighting criminals.

Tough punishment avoided

Thanks to the DEA, it has become very clear that a community that attracts the sort of people who lust after the blood and gore of a cockfighting pit also faces its associated crimes.
Let it be stated loud and clear: Cockfighters are moving their operations to states like Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky to avoid the more meaningful punishment they face if they get caught operating in the state of origin.

Generally, passing any state legislation that has a fiscal note attached is made extremely difficult by tough economic times and a severely deficient state budget.

Last year, legislation that assigned felony-level penalties for cockfighting in Tennessee passed both the House and Senate Judiciary committees but carried a fiscal note of about $150,000. The analysts who determined that number may not have accounted for the economic and social costs borne by Tennesseans when criminals who disregard any number of laws make Tennessee a haven for illegal cockfighting.

People who participate in this bloodsport don't mind paying a misdemeanor fine. They see a small penalty as the cost of doing business.

In 2006, a spokesman for a cockfighting group told ABCNews.com, "It is kind of like jaywalking in the middle of the street, or spitting in the street. May not be legal, but you don't really have to worry about it, you know."

When the House Judiciary Committee heard testimony last year on the legislation that ultimately failed to pass, a special agent with the FBI revealed that cockfighters said they had bribed former Tennessee Rep. Ronnie Davis with $30,000 to reverse the felony cockfighting law that the General Assembly passed in 1989.

Unfortunately, Davis was successful. It is time to reverse the damage and set meaningful penalties for all forms of animal fighting.