KUER Local News
(2008-02-08)
ANNAPOLIS, MD
(wypr) -
Delegate James Malone, a Democrat from Arbutus, sponsored a bill that made dog fighting a felony during the 2000 session. Now, aided by the splash of publicity surrounding the conviction of Atlantic Falcons quarterback Michael Vick on dog fighting related charges, he wants to make it a felony to even attend one. WYPR's Joel McCord reports.Malone argues that dog fighting is linked to drugs and alcohol and that it's extremely lucrative. He says he wants to curb it by cutting off the audience.
It's a felony now for dog fighting and what we're going to do is hopefully that spectators it's also a felony. You take the spectators out of the sport, there is no sport.
His bill, which was before the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, not only makes attending a dog fight a felony, it raises the maximum penalties from 90 days in jail and $1,000 fine to five years and a $5,000 fine.
I know this is something that when it happened with Michael Vick put it on the forefront. We have people here today that are going to testify to let you know, you know things are going on all around the state of Maryland still as we speak, even to the point where there's some championship dog fighting here in the state of Maryland and we're going to try and nip that in the bud. 01:33
Chris Schindler, of the Humane Society of the United States, used to be in law enforcement, investigating animal cruelty cases. He said toughening the penalties for spectators at dog fights will help enforce the laws.
When you pull up on a dog fight everybody takes off. It's hard to identify, especially since it's late at night, it's hard to identify which people were exactly handling the animals. And so when you pull up and you finally catch these guys you can only charge them with a misdemeanor, they get a slap on the wrist, and then a few months later you're out chasing the same guys for the same crime all over again.
Spectators, he said, are financing dog fighting, paying as much as $100 or more for admission. And the scenes are rife with drugs, guns and violent crime.
In one case, he recalled, he arrested on dog fighting charges a man who had been the target of a gang-related shooting two weeks previously.
He got a misdemeanor because we couldn't prove he was the one handling the dog, then two months later he went and killed the guy who shot him. These are things that are very common in that world. It's a barbaric world with lots of violence.
Schindler said much of the dog fighting has centered in Baltimore City. Joshua Sharfstein, the city health commissioner, said it has only been within the last few months his animal control officers have created a dog fighting task force with the police.
And because of that we've investigated 16 cases and I understand we're bringing two cases to prosecution and two others are being held for possible prosecution.
He said increasing the penalties would be a deterrent for others. But Delegate Luis Simmons, a Montgomery County Democrat, was skeptical.
Unfortunately we see a lot of bills that as a substitute for uniform, consistent, tough enforcement and prosecution decide to raise the penalties, giving the impression that we're doing something when in fact we're dropping the ball and not prosecuting.
Rather than making it a felony and potentially ruining people's lives, lawmakers could raise the penalties for attending a dog fight, he said.
I don't want to see a group of young men who because of stupidity or bad judgment become felons, can't vote, can't get jobs to support their families or support themselves because they happen to have attended a dog fight.
The key, Simmons said, is consistent enforcement throughout all the jurisdictions in the state.
I'm Joel McCord, reporting in Annapolis for 88.1, WYPR.
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