What has been the role of the ASPCA in combating dogfighting over the years?
Henry Bergh, founder of the ASPCA, was particularly repulsed by the brutality of the dogfighting he saw in New York and elsewhere. His 1867 revision of the states animal cruelty law made all forms of animal fighting illegal for the first time, including bull, bear, dog and cock fighting. The involvement of regular police in dogfighting activity was one of the reasons Bergh sought and received authority for the ASPCA to have arrest powers for his own humane law enforcement agents to enforce these tough new laws. Throughout its history, the ASPCA has fought for stronger laws against all forms of animal cruelty. A 1981 report commissioned by the ASPCA entitled dogfighting in America: A National Overview, concluded that dogfighting was more widespread than the public or law enforcement imagined and that stronger laws at the state and federal level were needed.
