A Tropical Paradise for Dog Fighters?

Ahhh, Hawaii. It sounds awfully appealing for those of us who've been suffering through various iterations of "Snowmageddon" these past few weeks. It's a place to kick back, work on your tan, hang out at a luau, and ... legally attend a dog fight?

Despite its laid-back aloha culture, Hawaii has one of the weakest dog fighting laws in the nation. While some groups are working overtime to change that, some governmental officials are just fine with preserving the very dubious status quo.

We're talking about a proposed bill in Hawaii (HB 730, if you're keeping score at home) that expands the scope of the dog fighting laws to criminalize wagering, hosting, or promoting dog fights. These provisions are pretty standard parts of any decent dog fighting law, but right now, Hawaii's law isn't exactly adequate, or even acceptable. The Aloha State has the makings of a dog fight promoter's paradise, complete with weak laws, laughable penalties and, for all I know, little drinks with umbrellas in them to sip while you rake in money off of a brutal and disgusting spectacle.

Putting some teeth in dog fighting laws is just common sense, right? Unfortunately, there's plenty of uncommon foolishness revolving around this bill as well. Take, for example, Timothy Ho, Hawaii's Chief Deputy Public Defender. In his written testimony (pdf warning) to a Senate committee reviewing the bill, Ho stated uncategorically that the Office of the Public Defender opposes stronger dog fighting laws. According to Ho, "Dog fighting is not a problem in Hawaii. No one has been prosecuted under our current dog fighting law. There is no demonstrated need to rewrite our current dog fighting statute."

The problem is, it's very difficult to enforce a law that ties the hands of law enforcement, as Hawaii's does. Under the current law, even if a cop walked right into the middle of a dog fight in progress, most of the people in the room would be walking out free a few minutes later. The only people that could be arrested and charged are the actual owners of the fighting dogs. The mob of onlookers, the people that bankroll the operation with wagers and admission fees, are not considered criminals in Hawaii.

Ho's argument only contains one fact worth addressing: that no one has ever been charged under the current law. I'm not surprised, given how weak the existing law is. We should also take with a grain of salt Ho's blanket statement that dog fighting "is not a problem," because, well, he can't actually prove it. Based on the lack of prosecutions he cites, it's equally valid to say that convicting people of dog fighting is the real problem in Hawaii, and that points us squarely back at the need for a stronger law.

Ho doesn't have a leg to stand on here. If his opinion that dog fighting isn't a problem is correct, then this bill provides a good dose of preventative medicine. And if he's wrong (because as far as I know, Hawaii does have gang activity and narcotics trafficking, both of which are linked to dog fighting), then lets hope he finds his case load increasing.

Photo credit: photos8.com