Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization, recently went before the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security to urge lawmakers to swiftly approve legislation that will give law enforcement greater power to crack down on illegal animal fighting.

Pacelle underscored the need for the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, H.R. 817, with evidence that animal fighting is not only cruel and barbaric, but regularly associated with other crimes such as illegal gambling, drug dealing, public corruption, and human violence. In 2006, five people have been killed in incidents associated with animal fights, including a double homicide in Starr County, Texas this month.

Dog fighting, hog-dog fighting and cockfighting are wellorganized criminal enterprises. Tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands, are wagered at a single animal fighting event, and current misdemeanor penalties do not provide a sufficient deterrent to people raking in this much money.

"If we are serious as a society about stamping out animal cruelty, we begin that process by shutting down staged animal fights," said Pacelle. "Congress should slam the door on barbaric dogfights, cockfights, and hog-dog fights by passing the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act at its earliest opportunity."

The Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act is sponsored in the House of Representatives by Rep. Mark Green (R-8 th/WI). Identical legislation introduced by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), a veterinarian, passed the Senate by unanimous consent in April 2005. The legislation would establish felony-level jail time (up to two years) for violators of the federal animal fighting law banning interstate and foreign transport of animals for the purpose of illegal fighting. The bills also will prohibit interstate and foreign commerce in knives and gaffs designed specifically for cockfighting.

H.R. 817 has 227 cosponsors, which is more than half of the House. Many members of Congress have also called for expeditious passage of the bill because of the relationship between cockfighting and the spread of avian influenza.

The National Sheriff's Association along with more than 400 other law enforcement agencies from all 50 states, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Chicken Council, and the American Veterinary Medical Association have all endorsed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act.