When someone commits a heinous criminal act, we always hope the punishment will match the offense. But when it comes to one of the most abhorrent and brutal crimes there is -- animal fighting -- things rarely work out that way. Dog fighting victims are tortured and killed for profit and "sport," yet their criminal abusers often receive a minimal sentence -- a mere six months in jail -- for inflicting a lifetime of pain. Roughly half of all federally-convicted animal fighters only get probation.
Some progress has been made in the prosecution of animal fighters: dog fighting is a felony in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and Congress recently made it a felony to attend or bring minors to an animal fight. But federal judges often rely heavily on the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines when they determine penalties, and in the case of animal fighting, those guidelines are outdated and woefully inadequate. Even though Congress increased the animal fighting maximum penalty from three to five years in jail, current federal sentencing guidelines recommend a base-level sentence of 6-12 months.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission, which creates these sentencing guidelines, is revisiting them, proposing to raise the minimum sentence from 6-12 to 21-27 months. They will vote on the new guidelines this spring.
You can help them make that case by submitting a public comment through aspca.org/gettough and by sharing that site and the video below with friends, family, and colleagues. The deadline for public comments is March 21.
This is a step in the right direction, but we'd like to see the U.S. Sentencing Commission amend the guidelines further, including tougher sentences based on factors such as the number of animals involved, egregious levels of animal neglect or cruelty, and dangerously violent offenders.
Simultaneous to this effort, we're working with animal advocates and state and federal lawmakers to strengthen anti-cruelty laws and law enforcement capabilities across the country, as well as supporting laws and policies that assist overburdened animal shelters and humane agencies who care for animal fighting victims. This help is critically important because the high cost of caring for animal victims is a major deterrent to intervening in cruelty cases in the first place.
But the bottom line is this: Betraying an animal's loyalty by forcing it to fight another animal represents human behavior at its most depraved. On behalf of the thousands of dogs victimized by animal fighters -- and other animals destined for the same cruel fate -- let's make sure the punishments better fit these crimes.
Matthew Bershadker is President and CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA).