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Idaho Senate OKs dogfighting bill

Betsy Z. Russell Staff writer

BOISE – The Idaho Senate voted 31-4 Friday in favor of ending Idaho’s distinction as one of just two states that don’t make dogfighting a felony.

If the bill passes the House, holding dogfights would bring five years in prison and $50,000 in fines.

Senators debated the bill for nearly half an hour.

State Sen. Mike Jorgenson, R-Hayden Lake, said, “It has been difficult going home year after year to explain to constituents why Idaho wouldn’t take a stand and make this a felony. … Let’s take an opportunity to put an end to this once and for all.”

But Sen. Jeff Siddoway, R-Terreton, said the bill would go too far. “We go to the local arena and we watch human beings pound the heck out of each other, and yet we want to put this into the rank of a felony,” he said. “It’s not just Michael Vick and the big shots – it’s what if your teenage son and my teenage son decide to go have a dogfight back in the back alley?”

State Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, countered, “Michael Vick is not persuasive to me at all, but what happened in my legislative district is persuasive.”

A recent bust of a dogfighting ring in southeastern Idaho – in which the perpetrators were charged only with a misdemeanor for lack of a more stringent law – occurred in Darrington’s district. “That should have been a felony – those people should be in prison,” Darrington told the Senate. “I think it’s very appropriate that we make this a felony. It’s an egregious act.”

Senate GOP Caucus Chairman Brad Little, R-Emmett, the bill’s lead sponsor, said: “This isn’t two kids out in the back alley that go, ‘Sic ‘em, Rover.’ We’re going after one very, very narrow class of people. … This was very carefully crafted, very carefully thought through.”

All of North Idaho’s senators voted in favor.

Wyoming is the other state that has no felony penalties for dogfighting. SB 1260 also would make it a misdemeanor to attend a dogfight as a spectator; there’s currently no penalty for dogfight spectators in Idaho, and conducting dogfighting is a misdemeanor.