Senators urged to support Animal Cruelty Enforcement Act

The origin of cockfighting dates back thousands of years, but it was during Ferdinand Magellan’s voyage to the Philippines in 1521 that modern cockfighting was first documented by his chronicler, Antonio Pigafetta, in the kingdom of Taytay. It’s a gruesome and stillrampant blood sport, disturbingly present in Georgia.

Most states banned cockfighting in the 19th century, and in the 21st century, Congress has made cockfighting a felony and banned it everywhere in the U.S. It’s also a crime to train birds for fighting, ship them across state, territorial or national lines, to traffic in the fighting weapons cockfighters attach to the birds’ legs, or to attend a fight or bring children to one.

Most recently a provision that outlawed cockfighting in the U.S. territories was signed into law in the 2018 Farm Bill. We worked hard to secure the latest provision – banning animal fighting in American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam – and that provision won support from the majority of the Georgia congressional delegation.

We followed up on the new law by conducting an investigation of live-animal shipping records to Guam. We found records for 9,000 birds shipped to Guam from the states, and it was clear these transports were animals bound for Guam’s fighting pits. Our investigation revealed that Americans are deeply involved in the global trade of fighting animals.

But while local law enforcement has done a much better job in busting cockfighters in Georgia in 2021, with the Walker County Sheriff’s Department’s arrest of eight individuals in Chickamauga on Feb. 3, little has been done by the federal authorities to stop this blatant disregard for the law across the U.S.

Animal fighting is animal abuse – plain and simple. The illegal gambling adds to lawlessness. Bringing children to the fights, using or distributing narcotics, and engaging in other illegal activities should make the whole enterprise a hot target for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), and for state and local law enforcement.

It’s not only inhumane and unconscionable, but it’s a health and human safety threat, given the role of cockfighting in spreading Avian influenza and Newcastle disease – something everyone should be mindful of amidst the current pandemic.

The World Health Organization’s report released this week shows that COVID-19 jumped the species barrier from animal to mankind in a live-wildlife market in Wuhan, China – and the conditions surrounding cockfighting aren’t that different with cockfighters often sucking the blood out of roosters’ lungs themselves in mouth-tomouth resuscitation-like contact so the gamecocks can continue to fight to the death – blood and feathers flying all around.

But there is hope with the Animal Cruelty Enforcement (ACE) Act, H.R. 1016, recently introduced in the U.S. House. The bill would create an Animal Cruelty Crimes Unit at DOJ to better enforce federal anti-cockfighting and cruelty laws and has already been cosponsored by representatives from Colorado, Ohio, Tennessee, Iowa, California, Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, New Jersey and New York.

Its companion measure, led by Sens. Mike Braun (R-Indiana) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode

Island) in 2020, will soon be reintroduced in the U.S. Senate, and we’re now offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who provides us with information leading to the arrest and conviction of abusers on cockfighting charges.

Opposing animal cruelty is a nonpartisan issue. We applaud Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Savannah) for cosponsoring the ACE Act this week and call on the rest of the Georgia delegation, including newly-elected Sens. John Ossoff (D-Atlanta) and Raphael Warnock (D-Atlanta) to join him in backing the ACE Act to help crackdown on this horrific blood-sport that continues to plague the State of Georgia.

This isn’t Ancient Rome – it’s 2021. No civilized society should tolerate this form of staged cruelty.