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![handle is hein.congrecreports/crptxfhj0001 and id is 1 raw text is: AUTHENTICATEO
U.S. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION
GP
Calendar No. 555
106TH CONGRESS REPORT
2d Session SENATE 106-297
ANIMAL WELFARE ACT AMENDMENTS
Mr. LUGAR, from the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and
Forestry, submitted the following
REPORT
[To accompany S. 345]
The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, to which
was referred the bill (S. 345) to amend the Animal Welfare Act to
remove the limitation that permits interstate movement of live
birds, for the purpose of fighting, to States in which animal fight-
ing is lawful, having considered the same, reports favorably there-
on and recommends that the bill do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
I. Purpose, need and background ........................................................................ 1
II. Legislative history and votes in the Committee ............................................ 2
III. Regulatory im pact statem ent ......................................................................... 2
IV. Budgetary im pact of the bill ............................................................................ 2
V . Changes in existing law .................................................................................. 4
I. PURPOSE, NEED AND BACKGROUND
This legislation will close a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act
(AWA) that allows for the interstate transport of gamecocks for
fighting purposes from states where cockfighting is illegal to states
where cockfighting is legal. This change will bring consistency to
the law, treating birds as other animals are treated by preventing
interstate transport for fighting purposes, closing a significant loop-
hole in the law.
This legislative change will also help law officers enforce cock-
fighting bans in the 47 states in which cockfighting has been
banned. The three states where cockfighting is legal are: New Mex-
ico, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. This bill would not prohibit cock-
fighting in those states where it is currently legal.
This loophole in the AWA undermines the ability of state and
local law officers to enforce their state bans. Cockfighters elude
prosecution in states where the practice is illegal by claiming that
they are raising fighting birds for shipment to states where it is
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