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Committee approves amended ban on cockfighting; removes employment carve-out
Summary
Senate Bill 102, which would prohibit cockfighting in Georgia, passed the committee after sponsors removed language that would have carved out certain employment protections; prosecutors and law-enforcement witnesses described links between cockfighting and other criminal activity.
The Senate Public Safety Committee voted to approve a committee substitute for Senate Bill 102, a measure to prohibit cockfighting in Georgia.
Sponsor Senator Robertson told the committee that Georgia is one of the few states without an explicit statutory prohibition and that the bill is intended to give state and local law enforcement the authority to address the activity without relying on federal prosecutions. "It prohibits cockfighting in, in the state of Georgia," Robertson said.
Jessica Rock, the state animal-crimes prosecutor with the Prosecuting Attorney's Council, testified that she has prosecuted related cases on the federal level and has seen cockfighting tied to "children, ... drug trafficking, [and] gun trafficking," and she urged language changes in the draft. Rock recommended removing a provision (lines 47-49 in the draft) that created a temporary employment carve-out which she said could lead to unintended judicial interpretations allowing convicted offenders to work in settings such as animal shelters.
Senator Robertson offered an amendment to place a period after the word "based" on the identified line and strike the remainder through the employment carve-out; the motion received a second from Senator Williams. The committee approved the amendment by voice vote and then approved the amended committee substitute by voice vote. Committee members discussed that the employment language had been a prior compromise with agriculture interests.
Committee testimony included law-enforcement and prosecutor accounts of criminal enterprises linked to cockfighting and concerns about children being present at some events. The committee moved the amended substitute forward to the rules committee for additional work.
