| Passed by the Senate March 4, 2006 YEAS 44 ________________________________________ President of the Senate Passed by the House March 2, 2006 YEAS 98 ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives | I, Thomas Hoemann, Secretary of the Senate of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is SENATE BILL 6568 as passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives on the dates hereon set forth. ________________________________________ Secretary | |
| Approved ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | Secretary of State State of Washington |
| State of Washington | 59th Legislature | 2006 Regular Session |
Read first time 01/16/2006. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
AN ACT Relating to animal fighting; amending RCW 16.52.117; and prescribing penalties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 16.52.117 and 2005 c 481 s 3 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) A person commits the crime of animal fighting if the person
knowingly does any of the following:
(a) Owns, possesses, keeps, breeds, trains, buys, sells, or
advertises or offers for sale any animal with the intent that the
animal shall be engaged in an exhibition of fighting with another
animal;
(b) Knowingly promotes, organizes, conducts, participates in, is a
spectator of, advertises, prepares, or performs any service in the
furtherance of, an exhibition of animal fighting, transports spectators
to an animal fight, or provides or serves as a stakeholder for any
money wagered on an animal fight at any place or building;
(c) Keeps or uses any place for the purpose of animal fighting, or
manages or accepts payment of admission to any place kept or used for
the purpose of animal fighting;
(d) Suffers or permits any place over which the person has
possession or control to be occupied, kept, or used for the purpose of
an exhibition of animal fighting; or
(e) Takes, leads away, possesses, confines, sells, transfers, or
receives a stray animal or a pet animal, with the intent to deprive the
owner of the pet animal, and with the intent of using the stray animal
or pet animal for animal fighting, or for training or baiting for the
purpose of animal fighting.
(2) A person who violates this section is guilty of a class C
felony punishable under RCW 9A.20.021.
(3) Nothing in this section prohibits the following:
(a) The use of dogs in the management of livestock, as defined by
chapter 16.57 RCW, by the owner of the livestock or the owner's
employees or agents or other persons in lawful custody of the
livestock;
(b) The use of dogs in hunting as permitted by law; or
(c) The training of animals or the use of equipment in the training
of animals for any purpose not prohibited by law.
(4) For the purposes of this section, "animal" means dogs or male
chickens.