Increase penalties for cockfighting to protect society

YOU KNOW YOUR law’s a joke when the criminals have the nerve to openly lobby legislators, demand that they not toughen it and even threaten to help unleash a global pandemic if they do.

That sort open defiance of the rule of law — and aggressive disregard for their fellow citizens — demands swift and decisive action almost regardless of what the underlying crime is.

The House can deliver that response today, when it takes up a bill to outlaw hog-dog fighting and, more importantly, toughen our anemic anti-cockfighting law. House members have already passed a cockfighting bill once, and the cockfighters just assume they will do it again, and have already turned their attention to blocking it in the Senate.

After the House Judiciary Committee voted last week to add the cockfighting provisions to a Senate bill to ban the up-and-coming bloodsport of hog-dog fighting, in order to try to force the Senate to act on the matter this year, a cockfighting Web site urged criminals to contact state senators and carried this suggestion: “Make sure to Mention BIRD FLU And Contrary to the ARA’s Claims, Passing these laws will drive Cockers Underground, NOT Make them go away! It will make Controlling the flu IMPOSSIBLE if it were to come here, and the safety of the people rests in Their Hands.”

In other words: If you try to punish us for violating the law, we will contribute to spreading disease and death throughout the world.

The cockfighting legislation was advanced after Agriculture Commissioner Charles Sharpe pleaded guilty to taking bribes to protect an illegal cockfighting ring. It was supposed to remove the special exemption that cockfighting enjoys in state law and make it a felony punishable by a fine of up to $5,000 and five years’ imprisonment, just like dog fighting and other forms of animal fighting and baiting. But after cockfighters showed up at a public hearing and demanded that their crime remain a misdemeanor, with penalties of only $100, the House was only able to agree to make it a felony on third offense.

Representatives did agree, though, to increase the penalties on all counts. They should do so again — at the least. And the Senate should agree to the changes, rather than continuing to allow a handful of senators to block debate, as they have done for a year now.

Animal cruelty of any type is a strong predictor of later criminal actions against people — which is one reason we treat most types of animal fighting as a felony. And cockfighting in particular nurtures a culture of violence that often has an enduring effect on participants and spectators. Like the other blood sports, it is generally accompanied by illegal gambling. And the avian flu strain that health officials worry will mutate into the next global pandemic is closely tied to cockfighting in Asia, where close contact between injured chickens and the humans who profit from them creates a fertile ground for viral transmission. This is an argument for a tougher law, not against.

Those facts are reason enough to create penalties that will be seen as more than simply the cost of doing business. The fact that cockfighters feel free to make public demands of our elected officials makes such action imperative. Otherwise, we undermine the entire idea of the rule of law, and invite other types of criminals to follow suit.