Incident is another indicator of the need for upgrade of state and federal laws to eradicate illegal staged animal fighting, animal welfare groups say
Greenfield, CA — Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, applauded the work of Greenfield Police for making a cockfighting interdiction outside of city limits Friday night, where 40 people fled the scene. One rooster was found dead, while 14 others were seized.
Animal Wellness Action has identified California as an enormous national hotspot for cockfighting. The organization is supporting AB 928 to place limits on the number of roosters an individual can maintain on a property is so crucial. It signals to local law enforcement that there is a cockfighting operation in the community and allows for civil penalties to address a crime in the making.
“Cockfighting is cruel and barbaric, and it is always bound up with other crimes,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, which is leading a national campaign against staged animal fighting. “We applaud the Greenfield Police for addressing this form of malicious cruelty so often bound up with other crimes. We must further strengthen California law and U.S. law to make it easier to enforce our anti-animal fighting laws.”
Cockfighting is a felony in most states but remains a misdemeanor in California. Dogfighting, however, is a felony in the Golden State, and this inconsistency is glaring and unwarranted.
In November 2021, Animal Wellness Action issued a report on illegal cockfighting in California, calling it one of the top illegal cockfighting states in the nation. Our investigations on the ground continue to provide support for that insertion.
There is massive trafficking of fighting birds across the border of Mexico and to several other Pacific Rim nations where cockfighting is legal or tolerated. In fact just weeks ago, a major Mexican cartel figure involved in cockfighting was arrested in Riverside County. With the traffic going both ways, cockfighters smuggle hundreds of thousands of fighting birds to cartel-controlled cockfighting arenas in Mexico and they also move birds from south of the border into the United States for illegal fights in our nation.
Cockfighting is also tied to disease outbreaks. Ten of the 15 virulent Newcastle Disease outbreaks in the United States originated from illegally smuggled game fowl for cockfighting, causing major disease epidemics in southern California in 2002-03 and 2018-20. At least 16 million birds died and more than $1 billion (inflation-adjusted numbers) was spent to control vND outbreaks.
“Gamefowl are high-risk disease vectors and reservoirs because they are widely sold and traded, deliberately mixed under stressful conditions at fighting derbies, reared under poor biosecurity, and have experienced husbandry or fighting practices that spread disease,” said Jim Keen, D.V.M., Ph.D., the director of veterinary science for the Center for a Humane Economy. Dr. Keen issued a full report on cockfighting and avian diseases that can be read here.
In addition to the Assembly considering AB 928,Congress is now considering The FIGHT Actto address the enforcement problems. The legislation would allow for citizen suits against perpetrators, ban online gambling on animal fights, allow for criminal forfeiture of property used to commit animal fighting crimes, and forbid the use of the U.S. mail to ship adult roosters.
The FIGHT Act has endorsements from 780 organizations and agencies, including the National Sheriffs’ Association, from the domains of animal welfare, law enforcement, agriculture, gaming, and conservation. Nineteen U.S. House members from California, 14 Democrats and 5 Republicans, were cosponsors of the FIGHT Act last Congress.
Twenty of California’s 58 counties restrict private ownership of large numbers of fighting roosters, providing the basis for the statewide policy proposed in AB 928. The counties without these local restrictions see more illegal cockfighting, according to AWA. Santa Barbara County was the latest county to take action to deter cockfighting by approving an anti-cockfighting ordinance, and that measure was enacted in January 2024.
“Cockfighters are constantly trying to stay one step ahead of the law, and that’s why more enforcement and stronger laws are needed,” added Pacelle.