The Southern Baptist Convention’s ethics entity has endorsed a Tennessee bill designed to deter animal fighting.
In a March 2 letter, Russell Moore told Tennessee Speaker of the House Beth Harwell the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission strongly supports a proposal that would increase penalties for participation in cockfighting and for attendance at an animal fight. Moore is president of the ERLC.
The legislation seeks to rein in a practice that involves the killing of animals for sport, gambling on the results of the fights and exposure of children to violence primarily against dogs and chickens.
Animal fighting is “detrimental to many of our communities and the families that call them home,” Moore said in the letter.
“[T]he incestuous relationship between animal fighting, gambling and organized crime continues to grow” with each year the legislature does not increase the penalties, he told Harwell.
“Unfortunately, Tennessee plays host to these conferences of nefarious activities because the punishment for dogfighting and cockfighting is a slap on the wrist in comparison to the payouts.”
Gambling and animal fighting, Moore said, “are societal ills that are each harmful to our communities on their own. However, when the two are combined, the result is individuals betting on the outcome of undeniable cruelty, and this is simply unacceptable.”
The legislation, House Bill 0962, would: (1) Increase the penalty for a second or later conviction for involvement in cockfighting to a Class E felony; (2) strengthen the penalty for being a spectator at an animal fight to a Class A misdemeanor; and (3) establish taking a child under 18 years of age to an animal fight as a Class A misdemeanor.
Punishment for a Class E felony in Tennessee is a prison term of one to six years, as well as a possible fine of as much as $3,000. Punishment for a Class A misdemeanor in the state is jail time of less than a year and/or a fine of up to $2,500.
Currently, involvement in a dogfight is a felony, but involvement in a cockfight is only a Class A misdemeanor. Meanwhile, being a spectator at a cockfight is a Class C misdemeanor, which carries maximum punishments of only a $50 fine and/or a 30-day jail sentence. Being a spectator at a dogfight can result in a maximum $500 fine and and/or six months in jail.
Efforts in the Tennessee legislature to increase animal fighting penalties have failed repeatedly in recent years.
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SOURCE: Baptist Press
Tom Strode
