JARED MILLER Star-Tribune capital bureau | Posted: Sunday, July 29, 2007 12:00 am
CHEYENNE - The battle scars and telltale clipped ears of the pit bulls at her animal shelter are proof to Linda York that dogfighting is alive and well in Wyoming.
"It's quite obvious that they didn't tangle with a barbed-wire fence, but that's what a lot of them look like; it's just cuts and scars all over," said York, who runs Pet Pals Inc., a no-kill animal shelter near Hawk Springs in Goshen County.
The recent indictment of NFL superstar Michael Vick has put the spotlight on dogfighting and also highlighted the fact that Wyoming is one of only two states - Idaho is the other - where dogfighting is considered a minor offense.
Animal activists largely attribute the lack of tough laws to the state's cowboy culture and the view that animal cruelty laws are a sneaky way to disrupt livestock practices and erode private property rights.
The state Senate earlier this year failed to act on a bill that would have made aggravated animal cruelty, including dogfighting, a felony. Some lawmakers opposed the change because it prescribed penalties harsher than those regulating domestic and partner abuse in Wyoming.
But some state lawmakers and animal advocates believe stronger animal cruelty laws would discourage those who see Wyoming as a safe haven for dogfighting, and would curb an activity they say breeds vice, crime and disease and results in dangerously aggressive dogs.
"To me, it's very sad to live in Wyoming and be one of two states in the entire United States that is not compassionate enough to care for our animals," said Kathy Hooper, owner of Big Sky Rottweiler Rescue in Riverton and administrator of the Riverton animal shelter. "I firmly believe that a community that is compassionate to their animals is compassionate to their fellow human beings."
The scope of dogfighting in Wyoming is difficult to measure, in part because the dogfighting community is highly secretive and difficult to track.
Dogfighting is also thought to be less organized here than in other parts of the country, making it a difficult target for police and less of a focus than felony crimes, animal rights activists said.
Signs of fighting abound
In the state's last high-profile case of alleged animal cruelty involving pit bulls, police cited Reuben John Pacheco of Douglas after a veterinarian determined that his dogs had been severely neglected and possibly abused in 2005, according to court documents.
Pacheco, who was suspected of breeding the dogs to fight, was later convicted of burglary after he broke into the local animal shelter and removed five of his dogs.
Kim Pynchon, a member of the Douglas Friends of the Animal Shelter board of directors, said she's convinced that the Pacheco case was not an isolated incident, and that harsher penalties could discourage those who fight dogs.
"I think it just needs to be a very strong penalty for anybody who is involved in animal fighting, animal cruelty," Pynchon said.
There are also subtler signs of dogfighting in Wyoming.
Lisa Vis, manager of the Riverton Animal Adoption Center, said the shelter sees plenty of pit bulls with clipped ears, scars on their faces and necks and aggressive tendencies.
"It also seems like there are an awful lot of dogs in Riverton getting stolen, especially the big breeds and the aggressive breeds," Vis said.
Another possible sign of underground dogfighting is the proliferation of backyard breeders selling pit bulls around the state, Hooper said.
"To me that's very telling, because with all the publicity about pit bulls and children being injured and killed, I just don't believe there are that many good family people who are going to buy these dogs, and for some reason there's a market for them," she said.
Dogfighting is described by animal rights activists as a sickening spectacle in which animals are trained to be aggressive, sometimes by torture, and then pitted against one another in rural barns and fields, basements and back streets.
Fighting dogs frequently are forced to spar with weaker "bait" dogs - sometimes stolen house pets or animals easily acquired through advertisements for free pets.
"It's not just pit bulls that die in this type of thing," Hooper said. "Every size, every shape, every color of dog can be used as bait dogs. They'll tie them to trees. They'll do all kinds of various things to develop a thirst for the blood."
People need protection
Dogfights, which have become popularized by some professional athletes and by segments of the hip-hop culture, can last for hours with dogs locked together in a death grip as the life drains from them, Dave Pauli, director of the Northern Rockies Regional Office of the Humane Society of the United States, wrote in a recent newspaper column.
"Most decent people find it hard to wrap their brains about such extreme sadism, especially when perpetrated against man's best friend," Pauli wrote. "But dogfighting and all its cruelty is not restricted to the likes of Michael Vick and his unsavory enclave."
Vick, the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, has been indicted by a grand jury but not convicted of a crime.
Competitive dogfighting also creates a host of secondary problems, including:
* Fighting dogs can become dangerous to humans and tend to inflict major wounds associated with mauling rather than isolated bite wounds when they do attack.
* All dogs suspected of fighting must be euthanized because they are a risk to humans.
* Dogfighting can create health hazards because their owners tend to neglect normal safety precautions such as vaccinations for rabies and other illnesses.
* Illegal gambling, drugs and guns are thought to be a staple of underground fights.
* Forms of animal cruelty such as dogfighting can also be indicators of domestic abuse, said Rep. Rosie Berger, R-Big Horn, sponsor of the unsuccessful legislation to make aggravated animal cruelty a felony in Wyoming.
Berger's bill, House Bill 49, received vigorous debate in the House and passed on a 35-25 vote. It also won support in a Senate committee, but the Senate never voted on it.
Berger said the enormous number of bills under consideration last session - more than 500 were drafted - and a resulting shortage of time was one factor that hurt the bill.
Those who thought the state should impose stiffer penalties for domestic abuse crimes probably also played a role, said Berger, adding that the point was well taken.
"We're enforcing a stricter punishment for hurting animals than we are for humans," freshman Rep. Lisa Shepperson, R-Casper, argued at the time.
Bill could return
Another slice of the opposition was represented by those who see harsher animal cruelty laws as a threat to the livestock industry and property rights.
"The big concern we run into are the cultural differences between someone who has come here from an urban setting and they see the way livestock is handled in normal practices and then they start raising issues of animal cruelty," said Ken Hamilton, executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, adding that his group didn't oppose Berger's bill after it was made clear that farmers and ranchers couldn't be targeted.
Other livestock growers, including the Wyoming Wool Growers Association and the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, also supported the legislation after it was made clear that traditional agricultural practices would not be affected, Berger said.
HB 49 would have made aggravated animal cruelty, including dog and fowl fighting, a felony and increased the maximum punishment to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
The offense under current law is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $750 fine.
It's unclear if the state Legislature will take up the matter when it meets again in February.
Berger, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee, isn't sure she'll have time to sponsor the bill during a budget session. And a two-thirds vote of either house is required to force a nonbudget bill to the floor during a budget session.
But Berger said the new national focus on dogfighting, and the spotlight on Wyoming's meager animal cruelty penalties, may be enough for a new push in Cheyenne.
If not, some lawmakers and state residents fear Wyoming could become a prime destination for those who crave blood sport.
"What we are trying to say is we don't want to be the only state that looks attractive to the people who are doing this," said Sen. Jayne Mockler, D-Cheyenne, a co-sponsor of Berger's bill.
Reach capital bureau reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@casperstartribune.net.