By Whitney Woodward Monday, February 18, 2008 DES MOINES — A plan designed to help law enforcement officials shut down illegal dog fighting rings could be voted on by a House committee this week.The bill, proposed by state Rep. Jim Lykam, D-Davenport, comes after some Quad-City area residents have reported dog abductions and finding dog carcasses, along with evidence of fights themselves.“They have found some signs of it in houses where they’d go in and the blood would be on the walls,” he said.The proposal would ratchet up the charges that illegal animal fight spectators could face. It would enable law enforcement officers to charge audience members with a Class D felony, making them eligible for up to five years in prison and a$7,500 fine.Under existing Iowa law,spectators at an illegal animal fight can be charged with an aggravated misdemeanor, making them eligible for up to two years in prison and a $5,000 fine.Without spectators who wager on the fights, the illegal rings would cease to exist, Lykam said.“If the spectator does go away, then the so-called sport goes away because there’s no one to bet,” he added.The suspicious findings in the Quad-City area bolster the need for such a measure,said state Rep. Elesha Gayman,D-Davenport.“We’d like to think they’re not in Iowa,” she said of the fights. “But because we have such a problem with pit bull abductions in Davenport ... I wonder if it’s not related tosomething more.”In exchange for leniency from the felony charges, spectators may be more willing to help officials shut down the dog-fighting circuits, Lykam said.“I think it will give prosecutors some bargaining (power), not so much to go after the spectator, but maybe to get thespectator to give the names of these dog-fighting rings,” he said.But Lykam said he is not under any pretense that the measure, if approved, will result in a lot of arrests. That is because the fights are difficult to locate.Those who help organize and participate in dog fights or who breed dogs for fighting can be charged with felony crimes under current Iowa law.If the proposal is approved, Iowa would join 22 other states that can charge spectators with a felony, according to the Humane Society, which supports the bill.In his veterinary practice, Sen. Joe Seng, D-Davenport said he has seen and treated dogs that he suspects were in illegal fights.“I think it’s done a lot more than the public realizes,” he added.Seng, who is sponsoring the same measure in the Senate, said the proposal is just one piece of legislation Iowa should pass to quash illegal dog fighting. The senator said he also would like to see lawmakers require in-state veterinarians to report any cases of suspected abuse, neglect or fighting.“There’s a multiplicity of laws that we need,” he added. “This year, it’s just another step toward preventing the cruelty to animals, animals being fought.”Dog fighting garnered national attention last year when law enforcement officers discovered and shut down a dog-fighting operation on property owned by Michael Vick, a quarterback with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League.Vick’s status as a popular athlete puts the onus on lawmakers to send a message to young adults that dog fighting is not acceptable, Gayman said.“We need to make sure ... that young people don’t think that treating animals in that manner is appropriate,” she said.
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