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Motions to Dismiss in the Amazon.com Animal Fighting Lawsuit

June 7, 2007

Astonishingly, Amazon.com persists in peddling contraband animal fighting materials, despite legal developments that pose major setbacks to its defense in litigation against The Humane Society of the United States.  

First, federal law now expressly bans the shipment of publications containing "commercial speech" for the purpose of promoting or "in any other manner furthering" animal fighting, in addition to the mailing of all other materials that promote animal fighting.

Second, the provision Amazon.com is violating was made a felony crime when President Bush signed into law the Federal Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act of 2007.

Third, it is now a federal felony to buy or sell the cockfighting knives and gaffs advertised by the hundreds in the animal fighting publications sold by Amazon.com.

Despite all this, Amazon.com defends its "right" to sell cruel and illegal animal fighting materials, even to the extent of using some rather outlandish arguments. Here are some of the statements Amazon.com and its co-defendants put before a Federal District Court.

  • Amazon.com says it should be permitted to continue selling animal fighting materials because "cockfighting existed long before the dawn of the Internet."
  • Animal fighting is only "allege[dly] ... cruelty to animals."
  • Amazon.com says that advertisements for fighting animals are "innocuous."
  • The animal fighting trade publications, in their own words, "join[ ] completely in defendant Amazon's arguments with respect to the conspiracy."
  • "The interests of the ... District" of Columbia in stopping animal fighting "are nil," even if this vast criminal enterprise leads to other crimes, such as "rape and murder," or public health threats such as "avian flu."
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Related Links

Amazon.com and Animal Fighting

Amazon.com and Animal Fighting: A Timeline

Amazon.com and Animal Fighting: Legal Arguments

Amazon.com Faces Lawsuit for Illegal Cockfighting Magazines

Amazon.com Under Fire for Sticking with Animal Fighters