ABSTRACT
Animal fighting and hoarding have the common elements of cruelty and neglect by an owner and secrecy. Animal fighting is defined as organized animal abuse, and hoarding is defined as severe animal neglect. A key distinction is that animal fighting is a money-generating business or enterprise carried out by owners as one of many of their personal criminal activities. The characteristics of hoarders are less predictable than those of people involved in animal fighting. Some federal legal strategy has been to utilize anti-dogfighting laws as broader crime-fighting tools. Among these laws are the Animal Welfare Act, the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, and the Animal Spectator Act. Hog-dogfighting is a form of staged animal fighting in the same category as dogfighting and cockfighting, which are both illegal. Hog-dogfighting originates from hog hunting, a legal endeavor in which hunters use dogs to find, chase, and catch feral hogs.
