New Strict Penalties Proposed to Combat Dog Fighting in Costa Rica

Individuals in Costa Rica who actively engage in underground dog fighting rings should face two years in prison, according to a legislative proposal recently introduced by Walter Cespedes, representative of the Social Christian Unity (Spanish acronym:PUSC) party.

According to an article by Esteban Mata of national newspaper La Nacion, the legislative proposal contains other provisionswhereby breeders of the Staffordshire and American Pit Bull Terriers will require to be licensed in order to ply their trade. Their breeding practices would come under scrutiny and control under the proposed law; agents of the National Animal Health and Welfare Agency (SENASA) would count and control the number of litters and puppies bred.

Allan Sanchez, director of SENASA in the San Jose metropolitan area, told La Nacion that dog fighting in Costa Rica is an underground phenomenon tied to a burgeoning appeal for clandestine culture and violence.

Dog fighting has been an illegal practice in Costa Rica for a number of years, but the Ministry of Agriculture, SENASA and the Humane Society International have been involved in a campaign to raise public awareness about the possibility of dog fighting becoming a trend in Costa Rica since late 2011. The Costa Rica Star has reported at length on this matter in a previous article entitled “Campaign Against Dog Fighting in Costa Rica.”

The new legislative proposal from the PUSC aims to strengthen current laws, which treat participation in dog fighting as a misdemeanor of up to 180 days in jail. The maximum fine is about $36,000. In the case of individuals whose participation is limited to spectating or wagering, the jail term is 120 days. These are essentially the same penalties applied to those individuals who are involved in cockfighting.

SENASA and Fuerza Publica have been coordinating investigations and raids of cockfighting rings with the help of the community, and they expect to do the same with dog fighting soon. Alas, Mr. Sanchez thinks that more drastic laws are needed, specially with regard to the status of dog fighting as a misdemeanor offense. He thinks it should be a felony.

La Nacion also interviewed Adrian Shannon of the Amstaff Community of Costa Rica. He thinks that the conditions in which these animals are bred and raised are the reason they become hostile:

“Any dog will act in accordance to the way it was raised as a puppy. Amstaffs require obedience training and socialization from their early days.”

The new legislative proposal can be tracked at the National Assembly under file number 18.443.

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