Gambling Investigators Hope Changes Aid In Animal Fighting Crackdown
By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle
INDIANA — Indiana’s gambling investigators regularly bust illegal animal fighting rings, but caring for the evidence — dozens or hundreds of dogs and chickens — as cases wind through the legal system is expensive and intensive.
Regulators hope forthcoming legal changes will ease the strain for the groups that pitch in: specifying that bond should include the costs of caring for animals and making it easier to euthanize those that are diseased or can’t be rehabilitated.
“My wish is that we never had to work one of these cases,” Indiana Gaming Commission Deputy Director Jenny Reske told the Capital Chronicle. “The fact that we have to go to the legislature like this is a testament to why we need to be able to do more good.”
Serving Warrants Throughout Indiana
Indiana’s Gaming Commission — the state’s gambling regulator — keeps tabs on casino, sports gaming and other activities that involve wagers. That work includes animal fighting, when people breed and train animals to brawl while spectators lay bets.
It’s illegal in Indiana, but still around. And it’s often tied to drug trades and other potential criminal activity, according to the commission.
When a tip comes in, the commission’s undercover Gaming Control Unit investigates, substantiates, and works with several groups to plan the sting.
“We’ll run down every tip — and it’s a really coordinated effort,” Mullen said, listing partners: Indiana’s Board of Animal Health, local police departments or sheriff’s offices, and local prosecutors “for search warrants when it’s time to execute and go knock down doors.”
The commission also holds a no-charge contract with the Humane Society of the United States, and maintains a relationship with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, also known as ASPCA.
Both groups have helped the commission document sites for later use in legal cases: fighting pits, weapons, training equipment, housing and the animals themselves. Both have also transported and temporarily cared for animals.
“We don’t have the resources,” Mullen said of the commission.
Freeing Animals — And Paying For It
During a case last year in Wells County, law enforcement served the warrant not under the cover of night, but at 1 p.m.
They documented details on the 139 roosters and hens, removed them from the premises, loaded them into cat and dog crates and hoisted them onto a horse trailer. The animals are trained into such violence that each requires individual housing.
The Humane Society keeps a warehouse in Tennessee stocked with equipment and supplies, and orders remaining needs ahead of each raid.
Each operation is donor-funded. The organization’s two-year contract is recorded as costing the state a single cent.
“Anytime we do a rescue, we publicize it greatly — not only to bring awareness to the fact that cockfighting, dogfighting, these types of situations still do occur in the United States — but also to raise funds,” Chapman said: transport, veterinary care, employee time, animal feed, bedding and more.
The Humane Society maintained that shelter for several days, she said, but has done so for weeks and months in other cases.
“We believe that, in order to stop cockfighting and dogfighting, that we need to have committed agencies that are willing to prosecute people,” Chapman said. “… It’s something that we’re willing to invest in, and that our donors and supporters truly believe in.”
Asked how much a typical operation runs the organization, Chapman said, “I have no clue. I don’t even have a ballpark number.”
Easing Euthanasia
Senate Enrolled Act 423 also eases requirements for euthanasia that regulators say is too limiting and presents risks to other animals and humans.
Current law lays out bond timelines during which animals can’t be put down, and allows euthanasia only for animals suffering “extreme pain.” Board of Animal Health General Counsel Sarah Simpson said the current language is “very limiting,” while the changes “give additional discretion.”
The legislation will allow euthanasia at any time if a licensed veterinarian says the animal is a “serious threat” to other animals or people, or if it’s in the animal’s “best interest.”
Fowl in particular are usually afflicted with serious and fatal diseases, regulators and animal welfare advocates said: avian flu, campylobacter, Exotic Newcastle Disease and more.
Multiple people noted that dogs can usually be rehabilitated, although they’re less common in Indiana’s animal fighting cases.
Impounds Expected To Rise
House Enrolled Act 423 goes into effect July 1, like most new laws.
And it comes as the commission ramps up its involvement in such cases, according to Mullen: as people offer up more tips, officers gain more investigative experience and as other states lean on Indiana for help.
“If people give us a tip, we will investigate. We are very motivated to come in and shut down this activity anytime we can,” Reske said.
Mullen also noted that multiple officers had been deputized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work on cases located outside Hoosier state, but that have ties back.
“We hear routinely … ‘Does this even happen anymore?’ You know, ‘This seems like it’s something out of a movie,’” The Humane Society’s Chapman said. “It flies under the radar. … It’s really important that the Gaming Commission and law enforcement crack down on these types of situations not only to protect animals, but really, to protect people.”
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