AR-News: (LA) Continue Aggrressive Anti Cockfight Efforts

[Political Animal]

This op-ed ran in the Shreverport Times today.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/html/6D4CF68B-2766-49C8-983D-67C2EC0D4AC3.shtml

 

PACELLE & PRATER: Continue aggressive efforts to halt
cockfighting in state
Wayne Pacelle 
Posted on January 24, 2004 

A lot of blood has been spilled in a lot of nasty
fights at the Piney Woods and Ark-La-Tex game clubs in
Caddo Parish. We're not talking illegal bare-knuckle
bouts or "tough man" contests, but legal cockfights in
which the combatants' throats are slashed, lungs are
punctured and eyes gouged out. While many Louisianans
swear by laissez les bons temps rouler, few people
likely had in mind Saturday-night knife fights where
cockfighting handlers and spectators gamble and cheer
as animals are maimed and killed. 

Some months ago, Caddo Sheriff Steve Prator was
informed that a 1987 parish animal cruelty ordinance
includes a prohibition on cockfighting - the bloody
practice that involves pumping up birds with
stimulants and blood-clotting drugs, strapping sharp
metal knives to their legs, and placing them in a pit
to fight. Sheriff Prator investigated, and learned
that Ark-La-Tex and Piney Woods indeed were hosting
major cockfighting derbies. He informed the organizers
that arrests would be made if they staged more events.


In response, the owners of the pits filed a lawsuit,
arguing that only the state, not the parish, can
prohibit the practice of inciting roosters to fight. 

Louisiana is one of only two states that does not have
an anti-cockfighting law, and the question before the
court will be whether the state Legislature has
pre-empted any parish from banning cockfighting. 

One function of local government is to adopt laws
desired by the community. If the people of Caddo
Parish don't want the animal cruelty, gambling, and
other vices associated with cockfighting - and if no
state law or constitutional amendment forbids the
adoption of such a local law - then it's their
prerogative to demand that local legislators ban
cockfighting. 

That's precisely what legislators did in Caddo, as did
elected officials in Jefferson, St. Bernard and
Beauregard parishes and in the cities of New Orleans,
Baton Rouge, and Lafayette. In New Mexico - the only
other state without a state prohibition against
cockfighting - 12 counties ban cockfighting. 

It's no accident that Ark-La-Tex and Piney Woods are
on the state's border. Not enough Louisianans are
interested in cockfights to make the events
profitable. The pit owners rely on cockfighting
enthusiasts driving in from Arkansas, Texas and other
states to participate.There's one problem with their
economic model: It only works if people violate
federal law. In 2002, Congress banned any interstate
shipment of birds for fighting. It is now illegal for
someone in Texas or any other state to bring fighting
birds to any pit in Louisiana. And any sponsor of a
cockfight who knowingly allows even a single fighting
bird from another state to participate is also subject
to federal prosecution. 

The cockfighters have sued in federal court in
Lafayette to overturn this law. We imagine that if the
state passed a law banning cockfighting, the
cockfighters would pull out all the stops to overturn
that, too. 

But the cockfighters have an uphill battle. No
anti-cockfighting statute has ever been overturned
anywhere in the United States. 

The cockfighters justify their actions by saying that
it is natural for the birds to fight each other. When
we intentionally exaggerate and stimulate their
natural fighting tendencies, resulting in the bloody
death of the combatants, and do so for our own
amusement, we cross a moral line in the sand. The
Caddo Parish Commission should prohibit cockfighting
with any legal tool it has available. And it's time
for the state of Louisiana to join with 48 other
states in outlawing cockfighting.
 

 

-- Wayne Pacelle is senior vice president of
communications and government affairs for the Humane
Society of the United States in Washington, D.C.

-- Alan Prater, an attorney in Shreveport, is a member
of the Humane Society of Northwest Louisiana. 
 

 



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