AR-News: Chicken Industry Calls for Crackdown on Cockfighting

[Political Animal]

http://www.meatingplace.com/DailyNews/init.asp?clickthrough=true&ID=12121


Chicken industry urges crackdown on cockfighting

by Ann Bagel on 4/5/04 for Meatingplace.com

The National Chicken Council wants to knock out
cockfighting in the United States, and it's asking
Congress to deliver a hefty legislative punch.

According to NCC, fighting birds were "heavily
implicated" in an outbreak of exotic Newcastle disease
in Southern California in 2002 and 2003. The
organization also noted that the traffic associated
with cockfighting could spread bird flu as well.

"Member companies of the National Chicken Council are
in the business of producing and processing chickens
for food," the group said in a letter to key members
of Congress. "We consider cockfighting to be an
inhumane practice."

The letter said the group supports HR 1532 and S 736,
the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act. The
bill would amend the federal Animal Welfare Act by
increasing the penalty for violating the animal
fighting provisions of the act – including the
interstate transportation of birds for fighting – from
one year of imprisonment to two. The bill would also
ban the interstate sale or transportation of the
razor-sharp blades or spurs that cockfighters attach
to the birds' legs to make the fight quicker and
bloodier.

Cockfighting is illegal in all but two states,
Louisiana and New Mexico, but continues to flourish in
many states on an underground basis. Federal law
prohibits interstate transportation of birds for
fighting purposes, but fighting birds are often sold
as "show" birds.

"The commercial chicken industry remains under
considerable threat because it operates amidst the
presence of a national network of game bird
operations,: NCC's letter to Congress said. "On the
basis of both humane treatment of animals and
protection of the health of the commercial flock, we
urge you to support the Animal Fighting Prohibition
Enforcement Act in the current session of Congress."

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