Dogfighting Laws in Hawaii: Felony Penalties, Seized Dogs, and What Counts as a Crime
October 28, 2026
Hawaii didn’t give dogfighting its own felony statute until 2011 — a surprisingly late addition compared to how long dogfighting had been treated as a serious crime on the mainland. Before that year, conduct connected to staging or profiting from a dogfight in Hawaii was folded into general animal cruelty law rather than addressed directly. That changed with a dedicated set of dogfighting laws in Hawaii that now carry real prison time.
If you’re trying to understand what counts as a crime, what happens to dogs taken from a fighting operation, or how federal law stacks on top of state charges, this breakdown walks through each part of Hawaii’s current statute in plain terms.
Important Note: This article explains Hawaii’s dogfighting statutes for general informational purposes and isn’t a substitute for legal advice. If you’re facing charges or need to interpret the law for a specific situation, consult a licensed Hawaii attorney.
Is Dogfighting a Felony in Hawaii?
Yes. Hawaii treats dogfighting as a felony offense, split into two tiers of severity. Cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the first degree — the more serious charge — covers the core conduct of staging, running, or directly profiting from a dogfight. Act 149 amended HRS § 711-1109.3 by converting the existing offense to cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the first degree, clarifying the elements of the offense, and increasing the penalty from a class C felony to a class B felony.
The same legislation created a second, slightly less severe charge for conduct connected to dogfighting that falls short of directly staging or running one. Act 149, Session Laws 2011, created a new offense, §711-1109.35, cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the second degree, a class C felony. Both offenses sit inside Hawaii’s broader animal cruelty framework, which you can read more about in this overview of animal cruelty laws in Hawaii.
| Offense | Statute | Felony Class | Core Conduct |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fighting dogs, first degree | HRS § 711-1109.3 | Class B | Causing, sponsoring, holding, or financially profiting from a dogfight; owning or training a dog with intent to fight it |
| Fighting dogs, second degree | HRS § 711-1109.35 | Class C | Conduct connected to dogfighting that falls short of directly staging or hosting the fight itself |
What Counts as Dogfighting Under Hawaii Law
Hawaii’s statute defines dogfighting broadly enough to reach more than just the person holding the leash in the pit. Under HRS § 711-1109.3, you commit the first-degree offense if you knowingly cause, sponsor, arrange, or hold a dogfight for entertainment or financial gain, or own, train, transport, possess, sell, transfer, or equip any dog with the intent that the dog shall be engaged in a dogfight.
The law also reaches people who never organize a fight themselves but enable one through reckless conduct. That includes recklessly allowing a dogfight to occur on property owned or controlled by the person, or allowing any dog intended to be used for a dogfight to be kept, trained on, or transported in property owned or controlled by the person. Notice the statute refers to “any dog” — it doesn’t single out particular breeds, a point worth keeping in mind if you own a breed often wrongly associated with fighting.
Is It a Crime to Attend a Dogfight or Bring a Child to One in Hawaii?
Hawaii’s second-degree offense, cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the second degree, was written to cover conduct connected to a dogfight that doesn’t rise to directly causing or hosting one — the kind of conduct that typically includes spectating and wagering in states with similarly tiered dogfighting statutes. Act 149, Session Laws 2011, created a new offense, §711-1109.35, cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the second degree, a class C felony, giving prosecutors a tool beyond just the organizer or dog owner.
As for bringing a minor to a dogfight specifically, Hawaii’s fighting-dogs statute doesn’t appear to carry a standalone enhanced penalty for exposing a child to one, unlike some jurisdictions. That doesn’t mean it’s consequence-free — general child endangerment and welfare laws could still apply depending on the circumstances, separate from the animal cruelty charge itself.
Important Note: The exact elements that trigger second-degree charges can be technical. If you’ve been told you’re a suspect or witness in a dogfighting case tied to attendance or wagering, review the statute directly or speak with an attorney before assuming how it applies to your situation.
Owning, Breeding, Training, or Selling Dogs for Fighting in Hawaii
The first-degree statute doesn’t require you to have organized or even attended a fight to face a Class B felony. Owning, training, transporting, possessing, selling, transferring, or equipping any dog with the intent that the dog shall be engaged in a dogfight is enough on its own. In other words, breeding a litter specifically to sell as fighting stock, or training a dog’s aggression toward other animals for that purpose, can trigger the same felony exposure as actually running the fight.
This distinction matters for anyone who owns breeds that get stereotyped as “fighting dogs.” Simply owning, training, or breeding a pit bull in Hawaii or a Rottweiler in Hawaii for companionship, sport, or working purposes isn’t a crime — the statute turns entirely on intent that the specific dog be engaged in fighting, not the dog’s breed or appearance.
Dogfighting Paraphernalia, Bait Animals, and Evidence of Intent in Hawaii
Because dogfighting prosecutions often hinge on proving intent rather than catching an actual fight in progress, investigators and prosecutors lean heavily on physical evidence. Items commonly treated as evidence of intent in dogfighting investigations include:
- Breaking sticks and spring poles used to build a dog’s bite strength and jaw endurance
- Treadmills, flirt poles, or conditioning equipment modified for fight training rather than ordinary exercise
- Veterinary supplies inconsistent with ordinary pet care, such as suturing kits or injectable steroids
- Scarring patterns consistent with repeated fighting injuries rather than accidental trauma
- Logs, scorecards, or betting records tied to specific dogs or fight dates
Using a smaller or weaker animal to provoke aggression during training — commonly called “baiting” — is itself a separate act of cruelty under Hawaii’s general animal cruelty statutes, even when the fighting-dogs law doesn’t label it by that exact term. Investigators treat the presence of an injured, caged, or restrained bait animal on a property otherwise tied to fighting dogs as strong circumstantial evidence supporting a first-degree charge.
Hosting a Dogfight, Allowing One on Your Property, or Profiting From One in Hawaii
You don’t have to own the dogs to face first-degree charges in Hawaii. The statute’s reckless-conduct provisions reach property owners who let a fight happen on land they control, whether or not they personally arranged it. Allowing a dogfight to occur on any property owned or controlled by the person carries the same Class B felony exposure as organizing the fight outright, and so does knowingly taking a cut of the proceeds or admission fees.
This is particularly relevant for landlords, farm operators, and anyone who allows gatherings on rural or agricultural property. If you lease land zoned for livestock or agricultural use and later learn it’s being used for fights, Hawaii’s livestock zoning laws in Hawaii won’t shield you from fighting-dogs liability — the reckless-allowance provision operates independently of how the land is otherwise zoned or used.
Penalties for Dogfighting Offenses in Hawaii: Prison, Fines, and Repeat Convictions
Hawaii’s penal code assigns maximum prison terms by felony class, and both dogfighting offenses sit high on that scale. A Class B felony conviction under the first-degree statute can carry a sentence of up to ten years, while a Class C felony conviction under the second-degree statute can carry up to five years, with fines layered on top of any prison term.
Hawaii lawmakers have also pushed to toughen penalties for repeat offenders. A 2025 bill, House Bill 698, proposed raising the stakes for anyone convicted more than once: cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the first degree would be a class B felony for the first offense and a class A felony for the second or subsequent offense, and cruelty to animals by fighting dogs in the second degree would be a class C felony for the first offense and a class B felony for the second or subsequent offense. Check the bill’s current status before assuming these enhancements are in force, since legislative proposals don’t automatically become law.
Pro Tip: If you’re researching a pending case, don’t rely on a felony class alone to estimate exposure. Hawaii sentencing also factors in prior convictions, the number of animals involved, and whether charges are stacked with wagering or animal cruelty counts from the same incident.
What Happens to Dogs Seized in a Hawaii Dogfighting Case
Dogs recovered from a suspected fighting operation don’t simply stay with their owner while charges are pending. Hawaii law gives courts explicit authority to remove animals from a property connected to abuse and place them somewhere safe during the case. A court may order a pet animal impounded to be held at a duly incorporated humane society or duly incorporated society for the prevention of cruelty to animals, which in practice usually means a county humane society or shelter takes custody.
From there, the dogs typically move through a process that looks something like this:
- Veterinary evaluation to document injuries, scarring, and overall health as case evidence
- Behavioral assessment to determine whether a dog can be safely rehabilitated and placed
- A forfeiture hearing, separate from the criminal case, to formally transfer ownership away from the defendant
- Either rehoming through an approved rescue, long-term sanctuary placement, or humane euthanasia for dogs too severely injured or aggressive to safely rehome
If a seized dog is eventually cleared for adoption on another island or sent off-island for rehoming, standard pet import laws in Hawaii and pet vaccination laws in Hawaii still apply to the transfer, just like they would for any other dog changing homes.
Animal Ownership Bans and Other Consequences After a Dogfighting Conviction in Hawaii
Beyond prison time and fines, a felony conviction tends to follow someone well past sentencing. Hawaii’s general first-degree animal cruelty statute pairs a conviction with a mandatory bar on owning or possessing pet animals for a set period of years following the conviction, according to the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s summary of Hawaii’s animal protection laws. The fighting-dogs statute itself doesn’t spell out that same explicit ownership-ban language, but courts retain broad discretion to impose ownership restrictions as a condition of probation or sentencing in a dogfighting case.
Important Note: A felony conviction of any kind can also affect firearm rights, professional licensing, housing applications, and immigration status. These collateral consequences often outlast the criminal sentence itself.
Federal Dogfighting Law That Applies Alongside Hawaii Law
State charges aren’t the only exposure in a dogfighting case. Federal law separately bans organized animal fighting when it touches interstate or foreign commerce. Animal fighting is banned at the federal level under 7 U.S.C. § 2156, which reaches any event involving interstate or foreign commerce where animals are forced to fight for sport, wagering, or entertainment. That statute has historically been the main federal tool against dogfighting rings that ship dogs between states or advertise fights online.
A separate federal law, the Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, targets extreme cruelty more broadly rather than animal fighting specifically. The PACT Act is a federal law that makes extreme acts of animal cruelty a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, and was signed into law on November 25, 2019, closing a gap in federal law by criminalizing the acts of cruelty themselves, not just videos depicting them. Prosecutors can pursue federal and Hawaii state charges for the same underlying conduct, since the two systems operate independently of each other.
What Hawaii Dogfighting Law Does Not Cover: Breed, Hunting, Herding, and Lawful Training
It’s worth being clear about what Hawaii’s statute doesn’t reach, since misunderstanding the law’s scope causes a lot of unnecessary worry for lawful dog owners. The statute is conduct-based, not breed-based — owning, training, or showing a German Shepherd in Hawaii or any other breed sometimes stereotyped as aggressive carries no legal risk on its own.
The same goes for several categories of legitimate dog work:
- Hunting dogs trained to track, flush, or retrieve game, which fall under Hawaii’s separate hunting laws in Hawaii rather than the fighting-dogs statute
- Herding and livestock-guardian dogs used in ranching and farm operations, a use case generally understood alongside Hawaii’s right-to-farm laws in Hawaii
- Service, therapy, and protection-training work performed through legitimate trainers, which operates under its own framework covered in Hawaii’s service dog laws in Hawaii
- Ordinary obedience and sport training such as agility, weight pulling, or bite-work sports conducted through recognized clubs and organizations
What separates lawful training from a crime is intent — specifically, intent that a dog be used to fight another dog for entertainment or wagering. Training a dog to be confident, protective, or physically capable doesn’t cross that line on its own.
How to Report Suspected Dogfighting in Hawaii
If you suspect dogfighting activity, your local police department or county animal control office is the first call — dogfighting is a criminal matter, not just an animal welfare concern, so law enforcement has jurisdiction to investigate and execute search warrants. Hawaii’s county humane societies also accept cruelty reports and often work directly alongside police on these cases.
For activity that appears to cross state lines, such as dogs or equipment shipped from the mainland or online advertising for interstate matches, federal agencies including the FBI can also take reports, since that conduct may fall under the federal animal fighting statute discussed above.
Pro Tip: When reporting, note dates, addresses, vehicle descriptions, and any visible injuries on the animals if you can observe safely from a distance. Don’t attempt to confront anyone directly or enter a property uninvited — let investigators handle evidence collection so it holds up in court.