One day after we expose cockfighting leaders, Congress introduces major anti-cruelty bill

Today, an extraordinarily diverse set of lawmakers — representing the entire political spectrum in America, from right to center to left — introduced the FIGHT Act in the House.

They did so with Animal Wellness Action, the Center for a Humane Economy, and 800-plus other endorsing organizations — from the Alabama Sheriffs Association to the Tennessee Sheriffs Association to the National District Attorneys Association to the American Gaming Association.

We even have the endorsement of the United Egg Producers, deeply concerned about the threat that cockfighting poses to avian health in America.

While we are seeing a surge in arrests for dogfighting and cockfighting throughout the nation, mainly by local law enforcement, we are seeing a troubling inattention to the problem from federal authorities.

And just this week, we conducted undercover investigations that revealed the two self-appointed national leaders of the effort to weaken our nation’s animal fighting laws — Anthony Devore and Blake Pearce, both of Oklahoma — are knee-deep in the underworld of cockfighting. Over the past three years when they took the public stage, the two men made repeated, emphatic public denials about any involvement in cockfighting.

Our undercover investigators penetrated a cockfighting pit in McIntosh County, Okla., where they recorded footage of staged animal fighting and found the two men at the center of the action.

We never had a shred of doubt that Anthony Devore and Blake Pearce, who hail from multi-generation cockfighting families, were hardened cockfighting criminals who show contempt for the rule of law. But for several years, they’ve been engaged in a charade with state and federal lawmakers, casting themselves as “chicken farmers,” “gamefowl enthusiasts,” and even “criminal justice reform advocates.”

Thanks to our brave investigators, anyone paying attention to this controversy knows the truth.

Zero Tolerance for the Scourge of Staged Animal Fights

Animal fighting is a morally settled issue in our nation. Dogs placed in a pit, succumbing to blood loss or perhaps suffocation when their opponents have them by the throat and won’t let go. Birds wounded by knives and curved ice picks affixed to the animals’ legs. The weapons pierce the skin and cut in a blur. Gouged eyes, punctured hearts or lungs. Slashing wounds that open up arteries.

Make no mistake, these are terrible ways to die. Traumatic. Painful. Animals terror-stricken. And for what? For the thrill of the bloodletting and the illegal gambling that motivate the core animal-cruelty crime.

It’s perhaps the most despicable and malevolent form of animal cruelty in our nation. And that’s saying something.

It turns out that non-human animals are not the only victims.

Last year, at a cockfight in Mexico, six people were killed and 14 wounded when cartel-on-cartel violence broke out at the spectacle of cruelty. One of the dead was a 16-year-old boy from Washington State, killed in a hail of automatic weapons fire. His father was shot and injured.

You might ask, what are Americans doing at a cockfight in Mexico?

The reality is, Americans are the major suppliers of fighting animals to the cartel-controlled cockfighting pits throughout Mexico. This is an illicit trade every bit as ugly and violent as the drug trade, and these two forms of trafficking are bound together.

U.S.-based cockfighters breed fighting birds by the hundreds of thousands, and the cartels run through the animals in orgies of animal violence at cockfighting pits with stadium seating. They enjoy the bloodletting and the gambling, deadening their hearts even more to the suffering of others.

Prior to that latest mass shooting, there were 20 people killed in a separate massacre at a cockfight, and an American from Chicago was one of the victims.

And shootings occur on our side of the border as well. A referee shot at a cockfight in Miami. A spectator shot at a cockfight in Dallas. A mass shooting at a cockfight outside of Honolulu, with two dead and three wounded.

And dogfighting may be even worse.

In Mississippi, also last year, two men were shot and killed execution style.

We have multiple problems at the southern border, and one of those problems is the trafficking of fighting animals back and forth across it — and people like Anthony Devore and Blake Pearce are working to keep this illicit trade alive and to weaken our laws and to block the FIGHT Act from passing.

The trafficking of fighting animals comes with cruelty, chaos, and crime, and it spills over into our communities.

The FIGHT Act An Answer to This Moral Mess

I am shouting from the rooftops to lawmakers about the importance of passing the FIGHT Act. All of this cruelty and mayhem must end! This crime wave must be stopped.

The people conducting these crimes, like the men we exposed this week, are a menace to our society. But while we are making unmistakable progress, there’s so much more to be done. Animal fighting won’t stop unless we get off the sidelines and get involved in reporting the crimes, passing the FIGHT Act, and creating a culture of zero tolerance for these staged spectacles.

It’s critical that we finish off animal fighting.

Because of our pushing them to act, federal and state authorities have made a range of arrests of dogfighters, including that of a senior official who worked at the Pentagon and ran an alleged fighting operation for more than 20 years! But these enforcement actions, especially for cockfighting, must increase many times over until the animal fighters get the message that continuing with their lawlessness will come with lasting and severe consequences.

There are a number of provisions in the FIGHT Act, but one of the most important is to create a private right of action against animal fighters. If the measure passes, citizens can sue dogfighters and cockfighters in civil court if law enforcement doesn’t act on credible information about illegal fighting activities.

The FIGHT Act also bans gambling on online dogfights and cockfights, which is a $12-billion-plus enterprise in the Philippines alone. And it allows for the forfeiture of property and other assets used in the commission of an animal-fighting crime. That kind of penalty — losing a house or a truck — will be felt by any animal fighter.

It was a major moment when we passed a law in Congress in 2018 to ban animal fighting everywhere in the United States. But now we are locked onto the task of enforcement and shutting down the pits, the gamecock farms, the pit bull yards, and all of the other features of the organized crimes of dogfighting and cockfighting.

I hope you’ll write your federal lawmakers in support of the FIGHT Act here.