Catastrophic Disaster Recovery Fairness Act of 2007

Floor Speech

CATASTROPHIC DISASTER RECOVERY FAIRNESS ACT OF 2007 -- (Senate - March 29, 2007)

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ANIMAL FIGHTING PROHIBITION

Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise this evening to talk about House bill H.R. 137, which has a companion Senate bill, S. 261, the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act. This is legislation that both the House and Senate have had much discussion on in the last several years, and something I hope will make its way to the consent calendar and final action this evening.

I come to the floor tonight as someone who has been a cosponsor of this legislation for several years now, and as someone who has seen the impact of animal fighting in the state of Washington where animal fighting organizations have not only been a source of all sorts of cruel and inhumane treatment of animals, but also other illegal activity. To me this is legislation that is much needed, and we have passed similar legislation in the State of Washington. It is something we should have a strong Federal statute on.

During October of 2004, there was a major raid in Vancouver, WA, where police found 21 pit bulls, as well as training logs and other evidence of animal fighting. It got quite a bit of attention as well because there were very high-profile people involved with the animal fighting ring.

There is a long list of other incidents that have happened in Washington State, other activity in Yakima, WA, where various animal fighting organizations were discovered by law enforcement who have done a terrific job of uprooting these organizations in our State. It is important we take an aggressive stance and pass this legislation.

The House bill we are talking about, H.R. 137, recently passed the House of Representatives, I believe with over 300 cosponsors. I am sure it had quite a few others who actually supported the legislation as it passed. We have over 35 cosponsors here with S. 261.

When I look at the legislative history of this bill, it has had remarkably broad bipartisan support. It was passed by both the House and the Senate in the past. It was passed in both Chambers in 2001 and then struck in the conference report. It passed in 2003 in the Senate. It passed in 2005 again in the Senate, a unanimous measure. As I mentioned, it passed the House of Representatives. I think it is fitting that it should be on our consent calendar and hopefully pass this body this evening.

The bottom line is, there are many organizations across the country that have seen the inhumane treatment of animals and have supported this legislation. The American Veterinary Medical Association supports the bill, obviously. The National Sheriffs Association supports this legislation. Police departments have been working in every part of the country and have endorsed this legislation because they see what kind of criminal activity is associated with animal fighting--gambling, drugs, and in one case in Washington State actual murder. The Federal antianimal fighting legislation is important. While we already have a Federal statute on the books, what we don't have is a Federal statute that effectively helps law enforcement meet this growing challenge. That is, with a simple misdemeanor, which is currently on the Federal books, sometimes it takes law enforcement as many as 7 to 8 months to investigate these kinds of crimes. To investigate and put that kind of energy into fighting this kind of criminal activity in our States, and then to have a maximum penalty of only up to 1 year is not adequate.

In fact, in Washington State, in response to the activities that occurred in Vancouver and other parts of our State, our Governor signed an antianimal fighting bill that has been a great model for what we should be doing at the Federal level. As Washington did, this bill would make sure this crime is a felony and that it has adequate penalties. In fact, when the current Federal animal fighting law was enacted in 1976, only one State made it a felony. Today dogfighting is a felony in 48 States. We need to make sure that it is also a felony at the Federal level for transporting these animals and products associated with animal fighting across State lines. In fact, we are seeing that in many cases.

In Washington State and in Oregon, we have seen this activity, because people in several States are joining together to locate and to make a profit and make investments in these kinds of criminal activities.

We want to make sure we are stamping out this activity. With this legislation, we believe we have a very good chance to say that the Federal Government views this kind of animal fighting as cruel and inhumane, that we consider it a serious criminal activity to drug and force animals to fight and then to enclose them in pits while spectators engage in all sorts of gambling, narcotics trafficking, public corruption, and, in some cases, even violence toward people. That is something we ought to take a tough stance against.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation. I hope we can consider it in tonight's consent calendar, given how the Judiciary Committee has supported this legislation, and how it has passed both the House and Senate in the past.

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