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Utah House narrows proposed felony penalty in bill to curb cockfighting after lengthy debate
Summary
After more than two hours of floor debate and competing amendments, the Utah House approved an amended bill that raises penalties for animal fighting to strengthen deterrence while stopping short of imposing felonies for repeat offenders in most cases.
The Utah House on March 13 adopted an amended version of first substitute Senate Bill 112, a bill sponsored on the floor by Representative Jeremy Anderson intended to increase penalties for animal fighting and strengthen deterrence.
The bill's sponsor told members the state was an outlier: "Utah is now the only state in the West that does still not have a game foul fighting penalty of a felony," and urged the House to act to discourage the practice. Debate quickly grew contentious and covered legal classifications, enforcement, prison capacity and whether felony labels were an appropriate tool for animal cruelty.
Representative Greene offered amendment number 6 to remove various ownership/possession culpability clauses and to limit criminal…
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