AR-News: (LA) Baton Rouge Advocate Endorses Bill to Ban Cockfighting

[Political Animal]

http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/041404/opi_edi1001.shtml

 

The Advocate (Baton Rouge)

Editorials -- April 14, 2004

Make cockfighting illegal in Louisiana 
In a state bathing in a deep pool of lawful gambling
opportunities, there simply is no need to encourage
back-lot "blood sport" for the purpose of cheap-thrill
wagering. 

The time is past due for Louisiana to outlaw the
barbaric practice of cockfighting, in which birds are
prodded to fight -- cutting at one another, bleeding,
gouging eyes, breaking bones -- until one lies dead. 

Gov. Kathleen Blanco has taken to the bully pulpit
recently to call for measures that might improve the
state's image. Here's a no-brainer for the governor:
Throw her support behind House Bill 681, sponsored by
Rep. Karen Carter, D-New Orleans. 

Carter's bill would make it illegal to organize,
promote, conduct, attend or be employed at a
cockfight. HB681 also would ban the breeding and
transporting of birds for fighting. 

Though opposition to cockfighting is widespread,
proponents of the practice in Louisiana somehow have
managed to outrun popular opinion. A recent poll
conducted for the Humane Society of the United States
found 82 percent of Louisiana voters support a ban on
cockfighting. 

Oddly, opposition to cockfighting even includes
poultry industry giants Tyson and Perdue, which kill a
combined 95 percent of the chickens eaten in United
States. The poultry industry considers cockfighting
"an inhumane practice" and also opposes it on the
grounds that fighting cocks can spread exotic
Newcastle disease. 

New Mexico is the only other state that allows
cockfighting, and most other states banned the
practice more than a century ago. That includes Deep
South neighbors: Alabama in 1896, Arkansas in 1879 and
Mississippi in 1880. 

The rest of the nation concluded long ago that
cockfighting is a backward practice and outlawed it.
Louisiana has become a bastion for the tiny minority
who find pleasure in watching animals suffer. 

Louisiana's law regarding cruelty to animals absurdly
excludes fowl from the definition of animal. This is
precisely the kind of institutionalized absurdity that
makes Louisiana the butt of jokes in other states. 

We hope the Legislature will pass HB681, and the
governor will waste no time in signing it. 

 

 




	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html