AR-News: (LA) U.S. Senate Candidates Square Off Over Cockfighting

[Political Animal]

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-0/108201254755630.xml


   
 
» More From The Times-Picayune
 
News
 
Senate candidates strap on spurs, face off
Thursday, April 15, 2004 
Stephanie Grace
War and peace, energy policy, taxes and . . .
cockfighting? 
Sure, why not? 
 

 
 
 Advertisement
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 

 
Like other competitive Senate races across the country
this fall, Louisiana's election to replace the
retiring John Breaux will turn on the oh-so-important
issues of the day, from Iraq to the economy. Unlike
those others, it apparently will also detour into the
realm of animal cruelty, cultural preservation and
city vs. country values. 
State Treasurer and Democratic Senate candidate John
Kennedy made it so last week, when he signed on to a
national Humane Society campaign in support of a bill
by state Rep. Karen Carter, D-New Orleans, to ban
cockfighting in Louisiana, one of just two states
where it's still legal. 
While making sure to declare his fealty to Louisiana's
twin passions of hunting and fishing, Kennedy insisted
there's a distinction between that and watching
gamecocks fight to the death. 
"Cockfighting is not a sport, no matter what anyone
claims. It's a barbaric practice. The whole purpose is
to watch animals suffer. I'll do anything in my power
once elected to the U.S. Senate to put an end to
cockfighting in the United States," Kennedy said. 
That position places Kennedy, who lives in
Madisonville, in the mainstream nationally -- and,
according to a poll conducted and released by the
Humane Society, it puts him on the same side as 82
percent of Louisiana voters. It also puts him in the
same camp as another New Orleans-area candidate,
Republican U.S. Rep. David Vitter of Metairie. 
That doesn't mean it's not a risky stance to take. On
the other side, historically, have been legislators
who represent Acadiana, where cockfighting is
considered a sacred tradition in some corners. 
Breaux and outgoing U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, Cajuns
both, have fought congressional efforts to crack down
on the practice, including a recently enacted law that
makes it a misdemeanor to transport roosters across
state lines for the purpose of fighting. So has New
Orleans native Sen. Mary Landrieu, who, like her
colleagues, frames it as a states' rights issue. 
But nobody has defended cockfighting more vocally than
Kennedy's most prominent Democratic rival for the
Senate seat, U.S. Rep. Chris John of Crowley, right in
the heart of Cajun country. In response to various
efforts to crack down on cockfighting, John has
defended it as a "social and cultural event," a
"family-type of business," and even a
"multimillion-dollar industry" -- kind of an economic
development tool, if you will. 
The third Democrat in the race, state Rep. Arthur
Morrell of New Orleans, hasn't been outspoken on the
issue, but he once voted against a cockfighting ban
when it came before his legislative committee. 
If cockfighting aficianados are outnumbered, that
doesn't mean they're not vocal, or politically potent.

They write angry letters to the editors claiming that
the ritual connects them to their ancestors'
traditions. They ascribe to the birds admirable human
qualities, like courage and fighting spirit. They rail
against the federal government and animal rights
activists and city folks who just don't understand. 
They also like to say that fighting is the gamecocks'
natural instinct, which makes preventing it the real
act of cruelty. That's a pretty big stretch, since the
birds' handlers find it necessary to up the ante by
strapping metal blades to the birds' talons, holding
the birds just so far apart that they become agitated
before the actual fight begins, and resuscitating them
by breathing into their beaks so they can fight some
more. 
Wayne Pacelle, a Humane Society vice president, points
out that conditions in the pit are far different from
those in nature, and so is the typical outcome. 
"Rarely in the wild would you ever see combat between
members of the same group end in death," Pacelle said
last year. "There's submissive behavior where one
animal stops or runs away." 
That's the way it is in the animal kingdom, anyway.
But among the Senate race's Democrats, any distinction
could be decisive, even one this localized. So for
them, battling to the end is the norm. 
. . . . . . . 





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