Perdue signs bill to increase penalties for dogfighting

ATLANTA - Animal rights groups on Tuesday applauded a new law that toughens penalties for dog fighting in Georgia. And they credited Michael Vick, the former Atlanta Falcons quarterback serving time for running a brutal pit bull ring, with making it possible.

``He has brought such awareness to the issue. Michael Vick has been the best thing to happen to pit bulls for a long time,'' said Paul Berry, chief executive officer of the Best Friends Animal Society, which helped write the Georgia law.

Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the bill into law at a state Capitol ceremony on Tuesday, flanked by two panting police dogs from Cobb County.

``It's really barbarism,'' Perdue said of dogfighting. ``It's dangerous, cruel and, for those of us who love animals and love dogs particularly, it's unconscionable,'' Perdue said.

Perdue is a former veterinarian who owns two dogs.

The new law takes effect immediately and makes it a crime to attend a dog fight or breed the animals for fighting. It also becomes illegal to possess a dog with the intent to fight the animal. That makes it easier for authorities to bust dog fighting rings because they no longer have to catch fights in progress.

John Goodwin, manager of animal fighting issues with The Humane Society of the United States, said Georgia's dogfighting laws had been among the weakest in the nation. The new law catapults the state from last among the 50th states in a Humane Society ranking of dogfighting laws to 20th, Goodwin said.

``We are ecstatic that now law enforcement in Georgia will have the tools they need to take a bite out of dogfighting,'' Goodwin said.

Animal rights advocates have been pushing for several years to beef up Georgia's laws. But they faced opposition from some rural state lawmakers who worried the effort could restrict hunting dogs.

Vick's involvement in the grisly underworld of dogfighting changed that. Vick is serving 23 months in prison after admitting he helped run a dogfighting ring out of his Virginia home and executed dogs that performed poorly.

``He certainly helped us put it over the goal line,'' the Georgia bill's sponsor, state Sen. Chip Rogers, R-Woodstock, quipped Tuesday.

A sanctuary run by Berry's Best Friends Animal Society is caring for 22 of the pit bulls seized from Vick's Virginia home at a shelter in southern Utah.

``They are doing very well,'' he said. ``We are worried about how pervasive dogfighting has become in the youth culture, in the hip-hop culture, and we want to make sure this doesn't happen again.''