Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals (BOWOW) Act of 2025

What is this bill?

• HR 4638, sponsored by Ken Calvert (R-CA-41)

This bill would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to state that if an immigrant is found or pleads guilty to harming an animal used in law enforcement then said immigrant would be deported and banned from future attempts to re-immigrate.

What makes it fascist?

Off the jump, this is a bill that has requires a lot of context. The law that the bill is using to describe the crime of harming an animal used for law enforcement is Title 18 USC 1368. This law pertains only to animals used in federal policing, such as dogs or horses used by DHS for CBP & ICE enforcement. The law is applicable if a person plans to, attempts to, or succeeds in harming an animal. The law places a max of 1 year in jail if found guilty. 10 years if the animal is disfigured, disabled, caused serious bodily injury, or killed.

That said, the major note is that the law states the crime has to be committed willfully and maliciously. Which means that, as written, the law does not apply to reflexive actions. For example, if someone left out poisoned treats in the area of CBP dogs, that would violate this law. If someone was bit by an ICE dog and they reacted (as everyone would) by doing everything they could to get the dog to stop, that would not violate this law.

And this is where the bill has the best chance for people to reflexively say it’s fine. If there’s definitive proof of someone throwing rocks at a horse or kicking a dog, it is extremely easy to go to the reaction of ‘fuck that guy.’ But when it comes to whether a law is fascist, the context of how the bill would be weaponized is key.

In the last year alone, there have been plenty of examples of CBP and ICE lying about the events & reasoning that led to the attempted murder of Marimar Martinez & the murders of Silverio Villegas González, Renee Good, and Alex Pretti. The Department of Justice has had their own stretch of trumped up charges against protestors and elected officials. With this as precedent, any law that gives DHS/CBP/ICE more tools to deport people will inevitably lead to fascist decisions. The law is clear that reflexive actions aren’t chargeable, but unless there is direct footage or witness testimony, it would be very easy to add a charge of harming an animal use by DHS.

I do recognize that this is more hypothetical thinking than I like to apply for these laws, but with the precedent already set that DHS and the DoJ have no qualms in lying to achieve their goals of mass deportation, I have to find this bill to be fascist.

Quick note: I am fairly certain this would not extend to police dogs/horses in regards to 287(g) programs, due to said program referring solely to officers & not being a sweeping federalization of police departments that participate. That said, it’s worth keeping an eye on if this bill is passed.

Which Dems voted for it?

As the past year has shown, there is a baseline of 10-20 Democrats in the House that are always more than ready to vote yea for anti-immigrant bills. The fact that the bill concerns abuse of animals & can be argued as reasonable legislation, I think makes it more likely for 30-40 Dems to vote yea. Would absolutely love to be wrong though.

As for the Senate, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are enough votes for cloture, but don’t feel confident enough to say that’s a sure thing.