What's happening
This bill allows eavesdropping or video surveillance warrants for felony animal fighting offenses under section 351 of agriculture and markets law.
Why it matters
Expanding Law Enforcement Tools. By allowing eavesdropping and video surveillance warrants for felony animal fighting offenses, the bill gives police and prosecutors access to investigative methods previously unavailable for these crimes, potentially making it easier to gather evidence and build strong cases.
Targeting Organized Crime. Felony animal fighting often involves organized criminal enterprises, significant gambling, and other illegal activities. Enhanced surveillance powers could help law enforcement dismantle larger networks behind these operations, not just prosecute low-level offenders.
Elevating the Legal Status of Animal Fighting. By including animal fighting felonies alongside other serious crimes eligible for surveillance warrants, the law signals that the state considers these offenses a high enforcement priority, potentially deterring would-be offenders and increasing public awareness of the issue.
Balancing Civil Liberties with Animal Protection. The measure raises questions about privacy and surveillance, as it extends the use of powerful investigatory tools into new areas. This expansion may prompt debate about how best to balance individual rights with the state’s interest in combating animal cruelty.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand Animal Fighting Surveillance
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 4
3 Co-sponsors
History
- Substituted by A2806
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.1016
- Referred to codes
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Target Animal Fighting with Surveillance
Signed by Governor · Sponsor Charles Lavine
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
611
2017-2018 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 4, 2017
Introduced by Sen. BOYLE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to adding certain animal fighting conduct as a designated offense for an eavesdropping or video surveillance warrant
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 8 of section 700.05 of the criminal procedure law is amended by adding a new paragraph (v) to read as follows:
(v) Any of the acts designated as felonies in section three hundred fifty-one of the agriculture and markets law.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05508-01-7
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to adding certain animal fighting conduct as a designated offense for an eavesdropping or video surveillance warrant
Purpose
This legislation would define animal fighting as a designated offense that qualifies for an electronic eavesdropping or video surveillance warrant.
Summary of provisions
Section 1. This bill amends criminal procedure law section 700.05 subdivision 8 to include section 351 of the agriculture and markets law as a designated offense for an eavesdropping or video surveillance warrant.
Section 2. Effective date.
Justification
Animal fighting fuels some of the most violent enterprises which corrupt our neighborhoods. Apart from the well-established social science link between violence against animals and violence against people, the New York law enforcement community has seen first-hand that vigorous investigation and prosecution of animal fighting exposes gang networks, narcotics rings, weapons trafficking activity, and other sophisticated and violent criminal enterprises.
Animal fighting is the pitting of two dogs against each other for amusement or gain. It can also be the pitting of a dog against another type of animal (even a human). While money need not be exchanged to qualify the act as illegal, there is indeed a significant financial machine behind this disgusting "blood sport." According to some estimates, dogfighting is a billion-dollar underground economy - just in the United States. Some studies put the United States' share of this enterprise at a full third of the global dogfighting economy. Money is not only made by abhorrent wagers on the outcomes of fights, but also through the illicit breeding, marketing, trading, and sale of dogs. Professional fighters will market the bloodlines of their winners, make money off of forced breeding sessions (whether successful or not), and sell litters as fast as they can be produced. The underground industry is such that, besides the fighters, there are individuals who specialize as "promoters" of fights, as breeders, as trainers, and as sellers. Because the activity must go undetected, there is also a strong subversive demand for medications, specialized equipment, veterinary services, and "dark web" communication platforms (unregistered Internet sites, invisible to public view). Another awful truth of this already-atrocious enterprise is that fighters will sometimes steal animals from their surrounding community - small dogs or cats - to use for bait or training for their kennels.
This is not a distant problem. It is happening in virtually every corner of the state. As law enforcement has grown more attuned to its detection, fighting rings have been targeted and brought down, and, along with those rings, law enforcement has seized guns and heroin, uncovered domestic abuse and child abuse, and rescued countless dogs from a lifetime of torture.
However, the methodologies of detection are still lacking - for no justifiable purpose besides oversight. Despite being an inherently "social" activity (i.e. more than one defendant must be involved), animal fighting is currently not eligible for a warrant to conduct electronic surveillance. This bill would place animal fighting on a list of crimes eligible to seek a warrant to conduct electronic eavesdropping. By including animal fighting as an eligible offense, law enforcement and prosecutors will gain valuable tools in combating this heinous category of crime.
Legislative history
Died in Codes 2016.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Local fiscal implications
EFFECTIVE DATE : This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.