The Fighting, Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act has been introduced into Congress. The House Bill H.R.2742 is sponsored by Representatives Don Bacon (R-NE) and Andrea Salinas (D-OR) with a companion bill (S.1529) in the Senate sponsored by Senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Cory Booker (D-NJ).
The Bills would establish a federal ban on dog and cock fights for the purpose of gambling in the U. S. In addition, the Bills would ban the shipment of fighting cocks through U.S. Mail and would create a citizens’ suit provision to allow civil actions against known sponsors of animal fighting.
In the 1980s, serving on the faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Louisiana State University, I expressed personal conflict over proposed state legislation to ban cock fighting, a traditional “sport” in the state. This was based on the fact that I wanted to maintain contact with game fowl breeders to encourage them to submit sick birds for laboratory diagnosis. This was to maintain surveillance over flocks and to detect possible introduction of Newcastle disease, endemic in Mexico and a threat to the U. S. poultry industry. My ambivalence was tempered by an innate sense of abhorrence over institutionalized gambling involving pain and cruelty.
Moving forward in the 2020s, EGG-NEWS firmly supports the proposed federal legislation if only based on the need to eliminate the potential risk of introduction of catastrophic diseases such as Newcastle disease and highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). More importantly, the unregulated movement of fighting cocks contributes to dissemination of these diseases as evidenced with an outbreak of Newcastle disease that was spread from California to Utah in addition to possibly other undocumented cases.
Cock fighting and dog fighting are associated with concurrent antisocial activities including drug use, money laundering and other crimes. Although elimination of cock fighting will not materially reduce the probability of introduction of HPAI into the U. S., given that migratory waterfowl are the important carriers, suppression, will certainly reduce the risk of spread by fighting cocks and their handlers.
Razor Sharp Spurs Attached to Feet of Fighting Cocks |
It is inevitable that despite passage of the Bill, enforcement will be a problem as the continuation of cock fighting and dog fighting will become a clandestine activity. Motivating local sheriffs to take action will be problematic in many areas of the country where their re-election is dependent on the support of local citizens, many of whom will resent federal banning of what is considered to be a right entrenched in tradition. The proposed legislation will only be effective if cock fighting is banned in Puerto Rico and Guam and other territories where Washington has jurisdiction.
Passage of the FIGHT Act will not eliminate cock fighting. It will most certainly send a message that our Nation recognizes the inhumanity of cock and dog fighting as gambling activities and the Act would morally position us with industrialized nations in the 21st Century.