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RICHMOND -- One year after the General Assembly failed to pass a bill to make cockfighting for money a felony, two lawmakers unveiled bills on Tuesday to toughen penalties for those who engage in the fighting of dogs, game fowl and other animals.

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, and Senate Minority Leader Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg, are each carrying bills to broaden the Class 6 felony applied to dogfighting to other animals as well. The bills would make attendance at an animal fight a Class 1 misdemeanor and give law enforcement officials additional tools to conduct warranted searches.

"We're not talking about a couple of chickens being thrown into a pen to see what happens," Griffith said at a news conference. "We're talking about using drugs to beef these roosters up. They put razor blades on their talons so they can cut each other. It's just not right, and it ought to be a felony."

Norment said the passage of House Bill 656 and Senate Bill 592 will "draw a bright line in the commonwealth of Virginia to prohibit this form of conduct."

The legislation is endorsed by Gov. Tim Kaine, Attorney General Bob McDonnell and a coalition of animal welfare groups.

There are about 30 formal cockfighting pits in Virginia, with most found along the southern edge of the state, said John Goodwin, deputy manager of animal fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

Griffith's and Norment's legislation was largely inspired by the case of Michael Vick, the former Virginia Tech and NFL quarterback who pleaded guilty and is serving 23 months in federal prison for his role in a Surry County dogfighting ring.

McDonnell said that the ensuing publicity shed light on both the scope of the animal fighting problem in Virginia and inadequacies in state law.

"We have found animal fighting in every region in Virginia," McDonnell said. "As the attorney general of this state, I believe we must do more to crack down on this inhumane blood sport."

The bills come a year after an attempt by Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry County, to make animal fighting for money a felony. That bill was inspired by a cockfighting raid in Mecklenburg County that turned up 140 fighting birds, boxes of knives and razor-sharp spurs, seven suspected gang members and 22 illegal immigrants.

About three-quarters of the 122 people charged with various offenses were from out of state, with the vast majority from North Carolina. Most walked away with nothing more than a ticket.

Reynolds' bill was changed on the Senate floor to reduce the penalty from a Class 6 felony to a Class 6 misdemeanor. It was later killed by a technical procedure in the House of Delegates.

Norment and Griffith both played roles in the demise of Reynolds' bill. Norment was among the senators who voted to weaken the penalty from a felony to a misdemeanor, and Griffith was on the House committee that ended its chances of being passed.

Griffith told reporters Tuesday that although he favored making cockfighting a felony, Reynolds' bill "came over from the Senate late in the process" with too much confusion surrounding it. Norment, meanwhile, explained his vote to weaken Reynolds' bill by saying he knew the House wouldn't pass a bill to make cockfighting a felony, but that passing a weaker bill would at least establish a structure to be tweaked in the future.

Reynolds has filed a bill this year that would add dogfighting as a qualifying offense under the Virginia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act. It would allow the seizure of dogfight organizers' assets and let prosecutors press for longer sentences in some cases.

McDonnell said he hasn't yet assessed Reynolds' bill.

Two Shenandoah Valley senators are wary of the Griffith-Norment legislation. Sens. Emmett Hanger, R-Augusta County, and Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, said they're not sure that cockfighting should rank as a felony.

Obenshain said that spousal abuse still ranks as a misdemeanor.

"That's worse than what we're talking about," Obenshain said. Animal fighting is "a practice that has no redeeming value that I know of, but it just to me is a question of what are we going to make into felonies."

Hanger had similar concerns. He's also worried about the potential cost of the incarceration associated with increasing penalties.

Too, he said he's worried that reaction to the Vick publicity may result in a rash decision by the General Assembly.

"Generally those types of things that are reactions don't always make good legislation," Hanger said.

Animal fighting-related bills have also been filed by Dels. Riley Ingram, R-Hopewell, Jim Scott, D-Fairfax County, and Ward Armstrong, D-Henry County.

Lawmakers in both parties, too, have introduced bills designed to tighten controls on large dog-breeding operations known as "puppy mills." Interest in the issue soared after last year's fire at a Bland County dog-breeding operation that killed nearly 200 dogs.

Staff writer Michael Sluss contributed to this report.