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New law targets fans of dogfights

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By Charlotte Eby | Thursday, May 8, 2008 11:33 PM CDT | () comments

DES MOINES — Those who attend and bet on illegal animal fights could now face tougher penalties, thanks to the work of two Davenport lawmakers who want to stop animal abuse.

Two Davenport Democrats, Rep. Jim Lykam and Sen. Joe Seng, ushered a bill through the Iowa Legislature that would raise the penalty for spectators on their second offense from an aggravated misdemeanor to a Class D felony. Those who bet on the fights could also face a Class D felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $7,500 fine.

Gov. Chet Culver signed the bill into law this week.

Lykam and Seng worked in recent years on legislation making it a felony to fight animals before the bill this year to crack down on spectators and gamblers at the events.

“We’re trying to send a message … go somewhere else, because we’re going to be tough if we can catch you,” Lykam said.

Lykam said it remains an uphill battle to stop dogfighting because it is underground, but he said evidence of dogfighting has surfaced locally with the discovery of pit bull carcasses.

“It’s a vicious, vicious endeavor,” Lykam said.

Spectators at the illegal animal fights could still face an aggravated misdemeanor on their first offense.

The original proposal would have made the first offense a Class D felony, but that idea met resistance in the Iowa House by some lawmakers who felt it could ensnare people who unknowingly went along with someone to a fight.

Lykam had nearly given up on the bill, which gained new life in the final week of the Iowa Legislature’s 2008 session.

Seng, a veterinarian, said the theory is if the fights don’t have spectators, bets won’t be placed on the fights and the sport

will die.

“Once you get that felony in there, people shy away from doing what they’re doing,” Seng said.

Sybil Soukup, executive director of the Humane Society of North Iowa based in Mason City, is pleased the measure is now law. Injured animals have come to the shelter that have either been in dogfights, or in the case of one injured puppy, used as bait in dogfights.

Spectators who pay admission fees and gamble help make the sport lucrative and the practice goes on across Iowa despite what some people might think, she said.

“It does happen, but people aren’t seeing it happen outside their front doors,” Soukup said.

Charlotte Eby can be contacted at

(515) 243-0138 or chareby@aol.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.