With the fall of Falcons star Michael Vick — who is scheduled to find out his prison term Monday — dogfighting has been under the spotlight in Georgia this year. The irony is, according to state Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, had Vick been under investigation by Georgia authorities, the law against dogfighting here is so arcane that he would never have been charged.
In short, the law against dogfighting in Georgia (pardon the pun) has no teeth.
Rogers has introduced legislation the past two years to toughen Georgia’s laws against dogfighting. Last year, it passed unanimously in the Senate, only to die in a House committee. This year, Rogers expects the proposal to pass. “I think the chances were very good before the Michael Vick situation,” Rogers told CL. “With the Michael Vick situation, the chances are even better.”
Rogers has gotten the support of the Best Friends Animal Society, a 33,000-acre animal sanctuary in Utah. The sanctuary enlisted Willie Nelson to film a public service announcement to bring attention to the proposed law.
Francis Battista, one of the founders of the sanctuary, says Nelson filmed the spot in Las Vegas before a gig at the Hard Rock Hotel. “He has helped us before,” Battista says. “We got involved because the laws in Georgia are pretty slack, and it’s difficult to get any type of conviction.”
The problem with the current law, according to Rogers, is that it is so specific that you have to be caught in the act in order to be prosecuted. “There’s not a single person in jail today in the state for dogfighting,” Rogers says.
As a result, Georgia has become a center for the dogfighting industry. “It’s pretty prevalent now and it’s getting worse because we’ve become kind of a haven,” Rogers says. “We need to be going after the entire dogfighting industry.”
