AN ACT to prohibit the ATTENDANCE of minors at certain exhibitions of animal fighting and to prohibit possession of certain animals with the intent that they be used in exhibitions of animal fighting.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑362 reads as rewritten:

§ 14‑362.  Cockfighting.

(a)        A person who instigates, promotes, conducts, is employed at, allows property under his ownership or control to be used for, participates as a spectator at, causes or allows a minor under 18 years of age to be present at, or profits from from, an exhibition featuring the fighting of a cock is guilty of a Class I felony. A lease of property that is used or is intended to be used for an exhibition featuring the fighting of a cock is void, and a lessor who knows this use is made or is intended to be made of his property is under a duty to evict the lessee immediately.

(b)        A person who knowingly owns, possesses, trains, buys, sells, offers to buy or sell, or transports a cock to be used in an exhibition featuring the fighting of that cock with another cock or another animal is guilty of a Class I felony.

SECTION 2.  G.S. 14‑362.2(a) reads as rewritten:

(a)      A person who instigates, promotes, conducts, is employed at, provides a dog for, causes or allows a minor under 18 years of age to be present at, allows property under the person's ownership or control to be used for, gambles on, or profits from an exhibition featuring the baiting of a dog or the fighting of a dog with another dog or with another animal is guilty of a Class H felony. A lease of property that is used or is intended to be used for an exhibition featuring the baiting of a dog or the fighting of a dog with another dog or with another animal is void, and a lessor who knows this use is made or is intended to be made of the lessor's property is under a duty to evict the lessee immediately.

SECTION 3.  If any provision of this act or its application is held invalid, the invalidity does not affect other provisions or applications of this act that can be given effect without the invalid provisions or application and, to this end, the provisions of this act are severable.

SECTION 4.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2023, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.