Why America’s Sheriffs Want Congress to Crack Down on Animal Fighting

For years, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy have documented an uncomfortable truth: the United States has become one of the world’s leading suppliers of fighting animals to criminal gambling syndicates abroad.

Every year, tens of thousands of gamefowl bred by American cockfighters are trafficked to Mexico, the Philippines, and other nations where organized crime has turned cockfighting into a multibillion-dollar global enterprise grounded in illegal gambling, corruption, extortion, and violence.

No place illustrates that reality more starkly than the Philippines.

At the height of the country’s online cockfighting industry — known as e-sabong — an estimated $52 million in wagers changed hands every day. American-bred birds became prized commodities at the center of this illicit enterprise.

In 2022, 34 men connected to e-sabong disappeared without a trace. Philippine authorities now believe they were murdered — allegedly by rogue police officers — and their bodies dumped into Taal Lake. Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla has publicly stated that investigators fear the number of victims tied to the scandal could ultimately exceed 100 people.

That criminal pipeline begins here in the United States.

Last year, our investigators uncovered a Dallas-area broker operating under the name North Texas Livestock Shipping Company, arranging the shipment of fighting birds bred across the South and Southwest and destined for the Philippines on Korean Air. After we documented the trafficking network and discussed the problem with the company, Korean Air agreed to stop directly transporting roosters destined for the Philippines.

That was an important and commendable first step.

But we also warned the airline that traffickers would simply reroute the birds through neighboring countries before placing them on connecting flights to the Philippines. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what we’re finding with reports that cockfighters are still using some airlines to ship birds out of Atlanta and Dallas to Vietnam before finding their way to Manila.

U.S. law already prohibits the shipment of birds for animal fighting purposes, so the solution is straightforward: airlines should not allow their services to be used for international animal smuggling. As a practical matter, that means adopting policies against the commercial shipment of roosters on international passenger flights originating from the United States. International airlines should not become the getaway cars for cockfighting traffickers.

The cost to ship a single rooster from the United States to Southeast Asia is around $180. No commercial poultry producer is paying that price to ship farm roosters for agricultural purposes. The cost of those flights is justified only if the birds themselves are valued at these kinds of lofty price points. One champion bird can easily sell for $2,000. That’s why a $180 airline flight is peanuts to the animal smugglers, but an impossible number to manage for a legitimate agricultural operator.

Cockfights Are Gathering Places for Organized Crime

The violence is just as extreme in Mexico and other Central American and South American nations, with the U.S. supply line of cockfighting birds to Mexico dwarfing the trade to any other nation.

• In April 2025, cartel gunmen stormed a cockfighting derby in La Valencia, Ecuador, killing 12 people. Authorities linked the attack to Los R7, a criminal organization involved in narcotics trafficking. Police recovered assault rifles, tactical gear, and fake military uniforms after the massacre.
• In January 2024, rival criminal groups exchanged gunfire at a cockfighting venue in Petatlán, Mexico, killing six people and wounding 13 others, including a teenager from Washington state.
• In December 2024, a targeted attack at a cockfighting arena in Manzanillo, Mexico, left a Sinaloa Cartel leader dead.
• And in March 2022, 20 people — including three Americans — were massacred at a cockfighting arena in Michoacán during a cartel dispute.

These cases undeniably show that cockfighting arenas are venues for cartels to launder money, conduct illegal gambling, traffic narcotics, move weapons, and settle territorial disputes.

The same pattern of illicit activities is in evidence in our homeland.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies routinely uncover far more than animal cruelty when they raid cockfighting operations.

In November 2024, federal authorities arrested Cristian Fernando Gutierrez-Ochoa, the son-in-law of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader “El Mencho.” Prosecutors allege he used cockfighting as part of a criminal enterprise to traffic methamphetamine and cocaine and attempt to evade international law enforcement.

In July 2024, authorities dismantled a major cockfighting operation in Granville County, North Carolina, arresting 15 people, seizing 174 birds and 46 vehicles, and uncovering evidence of cartel connections. Federal immigration authorities lodged multiple detainers.

Hawaii’s largest-ever mass shooting occurred at a cockfight on Oahu.

 America’s Sheriffs and Prosecutors Want Better Tools

Just days ago, the Pennsylvania Sheriffs’ Association (PSA) reiterated its endorsement of the Fighting Inhumane Gambling and High-Risk Trafficking (FIGHT) Act, and asked Congress to pass two complementary bills as well: the Animal Cruelty Enforcement (ACE) Act and the No Flight, No Fight Act.

“Organized animal fighting is not a standalone crime,” wrote PSA President James Ott, sheriff of Blair County, on behalf of all 67 of Pennsylvania’s elected county sheriffs.

There is a massive blue wall of endorsers of the FIGHT Act — a level of law enforcement support unprecedented on any anti-cruelty bill ever advanced in Congress.

The National Sheriffs’ Association and the National District Attorneys Association represent 5,000-plus elected sheriffs and district attorneys who are backing the bill. So too are the Major County Sheriffs of America and the Small and Rural Law Enforcement Executive Association. Add in 31 state sheriffs’ associations — from the Alabama Sheriffs’ Association to the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police — plus 500 individual sheriffs who decided to issue their own individual endorsements. Take those 31 state associations and the individual endorsers and that’s 2,181 county-level endorsements reaffirming the National Sheriffs’ Association’s support.

That level of support is unprecedented. Extraordinary. A mass movement of men and women in blue. A collective demand from American law enforcement that federal lawmakers must understand the connection between staged animal fighting and extreme social violence and other criminality menacing our communities.

Congress Should Listen to Law Enforcement

The three bipartisan measures now before Congress will give law enforcement the tools they need to wipe out cockfighting and dogfighting. They’ll do it by assigning dedicated federal prosecutors to go after these vicious crimes, enhancing criminal penalties for convicted offenders, shutting down illegal transports of fighting animals on airlines and through the U.S. mail, empowering citizens to win court orders to shut down animal fighting networks, and stopping the gambling on animal fights that enables criminal kingpins to launder billions of dollars in drug money.

Sens. John Kennedy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Reps. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, Troy Carter, D-La., Dave Joyce, R-Pa., and Joe Neguse, D-Colo., have shown determined bipartisan leadership in advancing these legislative reforms because they recognize that dismantling organized animal fighting means dismantling the gambling, trafficking, and criminal infrastructure that sustains it.

The Pennsylvania Sheriffs’ Association has again urged Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation — including House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson — to support these measures. Chairman Thompson should heed the advice of America’s law enforcement community and stop standing in the way of this anti-cruelty, anti-crime, anti-cartel legislation.

When the National Sheriffs’ Association, the National District Attorneys Association, 31 state sheriffs’ associations, and more than 500 elected sheriffs and other county law enforcement personnel representing all 5,000 elected law enforcement personnel are telling Congress they need stronger enforcement tools, lawmakers should not ignore them.

These are the professionals who investigate organized crime for a living. They have reviewed all these legislative proposals and explained in writing how their jobs would be easier if these bills became law. Congress has an opportunity to help these men and women protect and serve our communities better. Why would Congress say no to them?

The American people want to see an end to the violent crime linked to animal abuse. It’s time for their elected representatives to listen. Congress should do its job now and pass the FIGHT Act, the ACE Act, and the No Flight, No Fight Act.

Congress can strike a major blow against organized animal fighting. Tell them to act today!