Sports stars linked to cockfighting must face the rule of law

When you think about our recent work with Ridglan Farms — helping engineer an accord that allowed us to rescue 1,500 beagles confined in a breeding facility that fed the dogs into laboratories for testing — the word compassion might come to mind.

Our team and our partners emptied more than 15 buildings that had been loaded with dogs at the Blue Mounds, Wisconsin, facility that’s been operating there for 60 years. The transfer of the dogs became a national mania, with millions of Americans rooting for us and for the brave little beagles, expressing such excitement and enthusiasm for a turn in fortune for these pups.

And when you consider the vote yesterday in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce — passing our FDA Modernization Act 3.0, to accelerate the transition away from the use of dogs and other animals in laboratory testing, by a vote of 45-0 — you might think we exhibited a form of determination.

We passed the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 in December 2022 — eliminating an animal testing mandate for developmental drugs that had been in place for 84 years. But it’s been three years of battling to get the FDA’s regulations appropriately updated.

The Senate passed FDAMA 3.0 in December. Now, with yesterday’s decisive committee action, the full House can finally pass it in June. Then it’s on to the president for his signature.

And then, just this morning, a key U.S. House committee passed legislation to ban horse slaughter for human consumption. That’s been a 30-year battle, and I am reminded again of the need for determination in our fight. We must stick with our campaigns and keep them alive and ready

And finally today, I am also thinking about our efforts in recent days to call out three standout athletes for their alleged participation in cockfights in Puerto Rico — Los Angeles Dodgers star pitcher Edwin Díaz and top-notch jockeys Irad Ortiz Jr. and José Ortiz — you might think of the word fierce.

We are upset that these gifted men would victimize animals for the thrill of the bloodletting and wagering on the life-and-death struggles of animals conscripted into these spectacles.

But we’re also disturbed that leaders in professional sports are temporizing and not taking any action to rebuke or suspend these men for engaging in illegal gambling and malicious and violent acts of cruelty.

I can assure you of this: We are not going to sit quietly on the sidelines when high-profile athletes flout the laws of the United States and get a wink and a nod from the people who pay them to pitch a ball or to ride a horse.

Impatient for Change, Intolerant of Abuse

We bring urgency and intensity to what we do. It’s not dramatic for me to proclaim that animals’ lives are at risk every day. Violence awaits animals in so many settings if we don’t figure out a way to interrupt the status quo or help interdict the perpetrators.

Every morning, I wake up feeling like there’s so much at stake for animals. And I know that’s the way my colleagues feel, and that’s the way you feel, too.

It’s for this reason we’re stirred to act. It’s why we conduct campaigns in 20 major areas of animal use.

What could be more important for patients suffering with untreated diseases than to modernize our drug approval process so animal-free tests can get new wonder drugs out of the development pipeline and onto the pharmacy shelf?

How can we ignore the scourge of animal fighting when we know that if we don’t act, the animals enlisted into combat may have no one else to defend them?

Why wouldn’t we demand that multinational athletic shoe companies stop selling soccer shoes made from kangaroo skins when there are cruelty-free materials that perform just as well?

And isn’t it our duty to protect the most important farm animal welfare laws — anti-confinement measures Prop 12 in California and Question 3 in Massachusetts — from agribusiness giants who have no empathy for mama pigs squeezed into 2-foot-by-7-foot crates no bigger than a coffin?

And what about our efforts to close out long-running practices like horse slaughter for human consumption and the fading practice of greyhound racing, with so many on-track injuries for the dogs?

Aren’t these problems worthy of our best response?

Truth Tellers and the Rule of Law

I am really upset that leaders in the horseracing world are trying to whitewash the cockfighting activities of the Ortiz brothers, who were the first two to cross the finish line on their mounts at the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. These men have been, by all credible accounts, deeply involved in illegal cockfighting in Puerto Rico.

And the silence from the storied Los Angeles Dodgers organization disappoints me. According to reporting in the Paulick Report, a major horse racing news outlet, the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Commission already has a moral framework to consult when jockeys and other people at the center of the business of horse racing find themselves at the center of controversy.

Under KHRG rule 809 KAR 10:008, according to the Paulick Report, “a licensee may have their license revoked or suspended if they are ‘charged or convicted of a crime 1. Involving moral turpitude; 2. That constitutes a felony; 3. Involving sports wagering; 4. Of cruelty, mistreatment, abuse, or neglect of a horse; or 5. That discredits or tends to discredit the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sports wagering, or the gaming industry.’”

Engaging in cockfighting clearly and unmistakably violates just about every one of these tenets.

Cockfighting is illegal in Puerto Rico because federal law — specifically Section 26 of the Animal Welfare Act — expressly prohibits it in all U.S. jurisdictions, including the territories.

When Congress applied all prohibitions against animal fighting to the U.S. territories starting in 2019, its very purpose was to curtail that activity in Puerto Rico and Guam.

In the wake of the controversy following the Ortiz brothers and Mr. Díaz, there are apologists for them who assert that local laws allow for some localized animal fighting activities.

But this is a demonstrably false statement. The national animal fighting law has been upheld as a proper exercise of authority by every federal court that’s reviewed the matter. And Congress has made its view known that it is deeply concerned about the cruelty, contagious diseases, and criminal conduct at the core of cockfighting.

Our nation has grappled with these kinds of questions before. Think of the painful era of racial segregation: even when some states pointed to their laws permitting segregation, the Congress appropriately, in this case, had its say on an issue of such moral importance. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education and Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to put a stop to segregation in America.

Just because there is a cockfighting industry in Puerto Rico, those enthusiasts don’t get a pass. The people of the United States have spoken through their elected officials. And the courts have reviewed their work and blessed it.

A quarter century ago, Congress determined that animal fighting ventures are closely tied to interstate economic activity — through the movement of animals, participants, and money.

Mr. Díaz and the brothers Ortiz enjoyed being part of in staged fights with animals who had knives affixed to their legs so that the animals would suffer stab and slash wounds. And, in reviewing video and their prior statements, they appear to have been in the thick of the gambling on the activities.

Do American horse racing and Major League Baseball think it’s okay for their athletes to engage in this conduct?

I implore these sports industry leaders to consult their tenets of behavior and apply them logically.

For too long, organized animal cruelty enterprises have operated with impunity.

Just as with animal testing and other unacceptable abuses of animals, it’s time to stop being indifferent to cruelty. A new worldview is dawning when it comes to animals — one grounded on respecting the rule of law, recognizing that the lives of animals matter, and appreciating the value of human restraint. I promise you, we’ll keep fighting the good fight. It heartens us to know that you stand with us and support us in ways that make sense to you.