AR-News: New Orleans Paper Editorial Against Hog Dog Fights

[Political Animal]

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1082535922222810.xml



Editorials


A new blood sport
Wednesday, April 21, 2004 

If cockfighting isn't sufficiently gory for those keen
on watching animals suffer, Louisiana has a new blood
sport: hog baiting. 

The practice, sometimes called a hog-dog rodeo,
involves putting a domestic or feral hog in a corral
and siccing dogs on it. The dogs can injure and even
kill the hog, whose tusks have been removed with
bolt-cutters. 

This brutal pastime is growing in popularity across
the South, but that doesn't mean that it should be
tolerated in Louisiana. 

Lawmakers can make sure that it isn't by passing House
Bill 1244, which bans hog-baiting. The bill will be
heard today in the House Criminal Justice Committee. 

The sport's defenders argue that hog-dog rodeos are
family entertainment, no different than calf-roping at
a conventional rodeo or contests that show off the
prowess of bird dogs. 

But lawmakers shouldn't be deceived. Contests designed
to demonstrate a dog's hunting ability, so-called
baying events, involve cornering the hog, not
attacking it. That's quite different from hog-baiting,
where injury is the whole point. 

Laura Maloney, executive director of the Louisiana
SPCA, said that her organization is asking the bill's
sponsor, Rep. Warren Triche, to introduce an amendment
that will make it clear that baying events and hunting
are not the target of the legislation. That's a
necessary clarification. 

In Florida, Texas and Alabama, hog-baiting has been
shut down under existing animal cruelty statutes, and
in truth, this activity should be covered by
Louisiana's animal cruelty law. 

But in East Feliciana Parish, where a hog-dog rodeo is
held twice a month, the district attorney said he did
not find any evidence that the event violated the
animal cruelty law. 

By passing an explicit ban against hog-baiting, the
Legislature can ensure that this subjective
interpretation doesn't allow a savage sport to thrive
here. 



	
		
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