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SPCA official: Time to fill loopholes in federal animal fighting law

BY VICKIE GRANTZ | Published: December 28, 2012 Comment on this article

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The thought of dogs ripping at each other's necks in a bloody fight to the death, or a rooster with a razor-sharp knife tied to his leg, slicing through his opponent's chest, has led to passionate opposition to animal fighting. The fact so many of these criminal animal fighting rings operate in an interstate manner prompted a federal animal fighting law that was passed in 1976.

Yet what we've seen when the federal law has been used is that dogfighters and cockfighters abandon their animals at the first sign of a raid. They claim to be spectators so as to avoid prosecution. It's time to close that loophole and ensure that the entire cast of characters at animal fights is prosecuted.

Grantz is executive director of the Enid Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

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