Animal Fighting

The staging of an organized fight between two animals, most commonly a dog or a domestic fowl, for entertainment or gambling purposes, a criminal offense codified separately from general animal cruelty statutes in most countries that prohibit it, encompassing not only the fight itself but also documented ancillary conduct such as training, breeding, or possessing an animal for fighting, attending an animal fight as a spectator, and wagering on its outcome. Dogfighting and cockfighting are the most widely documented forms, with dogfighting in the United States prosecuted as a federal felony under the Animal Welfare Act as amended, and law enforcement agencies including the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation have documented animal fighting operations as frequently linked to other organized criminal activity, including illegal gambling, drug trafficking, and weapons offenses, at the same venues where animal fights are staged.