by Lucinda Gunnin

Created on: January 29, 2009

Animal fighting penalties need to be strengthened immediately to counteract the damage this "sport" does to society and animals. The damage that animal fighting causes can best be summed up in the heartbreak of one little girl.

When I was 9, my grandparents agreed to keep my new puppy, a little mutt that looked a bit like a black lab, for a week while we were away. They had an acre or more of fenced land and a cattleguard on the driveway, so Spud was more than happy to be let outside to roam.

He had been there three days when a car my grandmother didn't recognize stopped at the end of the driveway and called the dog to them. He stopped shy of the cattleguard and someone in the car got out and grabbed him. Then the car sped away.

My grandmother knew the dog itself was worth little in economic terms, but it was also her granddaughter's pet, so she called the police. The county sheriff came out and took her statement, but said he doubted they would find my dog as there was a ring of dog fight operators snatching puppies to be used to train their fighting dogs to be more viscious. Spud was three months old and used to playing with children. He had no chance against people like that.

She never wanted to tell me. She tried telling me a happy story, that someone had stopped and called the dog by name to get him to come to the car. She told me he had a good home. I overheard her telling the whole story to my mother later that day. I was 9 and got to hear that my puppy was probably injured and then set "free" in a pen with a dog they were training to kill. He was likely ripped apart.

I was not the only little girl to ever lose her pet this way, but animal fighting did impact my life even though I would never support it or even view it.

Now, as an adult, I learn that the penalties for animal cruelty and animal fighting vary greatly state to state, but are generally minor. A person conducting illegal dog fights is more likely to serve time for the illegal gambling taking place than for the cruelty inflicted on these animals. A year ago, in a neighboring state, police stopped a dog fighting ring and confiscated dozens of mistreated dogs. Sadly, most of them had to be put down rather than adopted out because of the horrific way they had been treated.

The simple truth is that what stops most people from committing crimes ios the severity of the punishment if they get caught. Right now, those running animal fights know that they will get little more than a slap on the wrist.

It's time to change that so I become one of the last little girl's to have her pet stolen to support these horrible, viscious, and criminal activities.

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