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<\/p>\nPennsylvania Chiefs of Police, Pennsylvania Sheriffs Assoc., Pennsylvania District Attorneys Assoc. join more than 500 other law enforcement agencies in calling on Congress to pass the FIGHT Act<\/p>\n
Fayette County, Pa. \u2014\u00a0In an extraordinary showing of unanimity by law enforcement from rural and urban parts of the Commonwealth, the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police, the Pennsylvania Sheriffs\u2019 Association, and the Pennsylvania District Attorneys\u2019 Association have asked House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson to include the bipartisan Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act as a provision of the Farm bill. They are joined by more than 70 individual county sheriffs and district attorneys who have also endorsed the FIGHT Act.<\/p>\n
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Despite existing state and federal laws against dogfighting and cockfighting, these criminal syndicates operate on an extraordinary scale in the U.S., with perhaps 20 million fighting birds, according to the USDA, and thousands of illegal dogfighting networks. \u201cAnimal fighting \u201cis a threat to public safety, animal welfare, and community health,\u201d\u00a0noted Scott L. Bohn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnimal fighting is organized crime that threatens public safety and drains law enforcement resources,\u201d saidSheriff James Custer\u00a0of Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and a board member of the National Sheriffs\u2019 Association, which has also endorsed the legislation. \u201cSheriffs, prosecutors, and police leaders across Pennsylvania are united in calling on the House Agriculture Committee to advance the FIGHT Act now. It\u2019s time for Congress to move it forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPennsylvania\u2019s prosecutors deal with the real-world consequences of violent and organized crime, including animal fighting,\u201d said\u00a0Kelly Callihan, executive director of the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association. \u201cWhen law enforcement and prosecutors across the Commonwealth speak with one voice, legislators should take note. The FIGHT Act reflects the on-the-ground experience of those who investigate and prosecute these crimes, and it is the common-sense step Congress should take to strengthen enforcement and protect our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe federal government plays a critical role in complementing the work of local law enforcement to interdict animal fighting operations,\u201d\u00a0says Montgomery Sheriff Sean P. Kilkenny on behalf of the Pennsylvania Sheriffs\u2019 Association. \u201cThese are often complex operations, requiring multiple agencies stretching across states, territories, and even nations. We have finite resources and may be unable to conduct a complete investigation if an animal fighting ring stretches across county or state lines.\u201d<\/p>\n
Don Bacon, R-Neb., and Andrea Salinas, D-Ore., members of the Agriculture Committee chaired by Pennsylvania\u2019s Glenn Thompson, lead H.R. 3946 in the House. The bill has attracted 72 Democrats and 57 Republicans as cosponsors, including Reps. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa.-2; Madeleine Dean, D-Pa.-4; Christopher Deluzio, D-Pa.-17; Dwight Evans, D-Pa.-3; Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.-1; Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa.-6; John Joyce, R-Pa.-13; Summer Lee, D-Pa.-12; Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa.-7; Daniel Meuser, R-Pa.-9; Scott Perry, R-Pa.-10; Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa.-14; and Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa.-5. The Senate bill, S. 1454, led by Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., has 17 cosponsors, including Pennsylvania\u2019s John Fetterman, D-Pa.<\/p>\n
The horrors of animal fighting came into the public glare in Pennsylvania after the dogfighting case of Michael Vick, who joined the Philadelphia Eagles after his incarceration for staged animal fights and electrocuting poor-performing dogs.\u00a0 Law enforcement has documented recent high-profile cockfighting and dogfighting cases in Pennsylvania, including a 2025 dogfighting case in West Hazleton (Luzerne County) in which Pennsylvania State Police impounded 28 pit bulls found with scars and other signs consistent with fighting. In Bucks County, law enforcement broke up a cockfighting ring in Plumstead Township. One of the two perpetrators was also convicted on charges of narcotics trafficking.<\/p>\n
\u201cDogfighting and cockfighting rings are routinely linked to illegal firearms, narcotics trafficking, gambling, money laundering, and violent crime,\u201d\u00a0writes Centre County Sheriff Bryan Semple. \u201cThese operations exploit gaps in enforcement and jurisdiction, allowing organized criminal networks to operate with relative impunity while placing communities, officers, and the public at risk.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0While Tioga County Sheriff Frank Levindoski\u00a0also backs the bill and notes that \u201cstrong federal coordination and enforcement are essential to dismantling these networks effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLaw enforcement leaders across Pennsylvania see firsthand how animal fighting damages neighborhoods and fuels broader criminal networks \u2014 it\u2019s far more than an issue of animal abuse,\u201d said\u00a0Natalie Ahwesh, Pennsylvania state director of Animal Wellness Action.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re honored to work alongside the sheriffs, chiefs of police, and district attorneys in all 67 counties to push for strong laws that equip state and federal law enforcement with the tools needed to dismantle these organized crime rings.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to more than 70 law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania, the FIGHT Act has now been endorsed by more\u00a01,050 groups and agencies<\/a>\u00a0across the nation, including the\u00a0National Sheriffs\u2019 Association<\/a>; the National District Attorneys Association;\u00a0Small and Rural Law Enforcement Executive Association<\/a>;\u00a0Major County Sheriffs of America<\/a>;\u00a0American Gaming Association<\/a>\u00a0(AGA);\u00a0United Egg Producers<\/a>;\u00a0Rose Acre Farms<\/a>;\u00a0Vital Farms<\/a>;\u00a0Indiana State Poultry Association<\/a>;\u00a0Ohio Poultry Association<\/a>; and the\u00a0North Central Poultry Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n The $300 billion casino industry also supports the FIGHT Act. \u201cIllegal gambling operations provide an easy avenue for money laundering, and the proceeds generated through these operations are often used to facilitate other serious forms of crime,\u2019\u00a0wrote William C. Miller, Jr., president and CEO of the American Gaming Association. \u201cThese illegal operations also offer wagers on activities that are themselves illegal \u2013 namely dogfighting and cockfighting. We are deeply concerned about the proliferation of betting on animal fights on the web, and support efforts to interdict these crimes.\u201d On-line wagering on cockfights in the Philippines alone came in at $13 billion in 2022. There were more than 100 people murdered associated with disputes over cockfighting.<\/p>\n America\u2019s egg industry is also deeply concerned about the role of cockfighting in spreading avian disease to the U.S. egg and poultry industries. \u201cTen of the 15 US vND (virulent Newcastle Disease) outbreaks originating from smuggled gamefowl from Mexico into the United States caused major disease epidemics in southern California in 2002-03 and 2018-20,\u201d\u00a0said Chad Gregory, president and CEO of the United Egg Producers, the nation\u2019s major trade association for the industry. \u201cAt least 16 million birds died and more than $1 billion was spent to control U.S.-centered vND outbreaks.\u201d<\/p>\n A fact sheet on the\u00a0FIGHT Act\u00a0can be found\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and a poster showing the breadth of support for the measure can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police, Pennsylvania Sheriffs Assoc., Pennsylvania District Attorneys Assoc. join more than 500 other law enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[49890,28,30,29],"class_list":["post-103065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-animal-fighting-is-the-pits","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}