AR-News: In Lousiana It's Hogs 1, Chickens 0

[Political Animal]

                        April 30, 2004, Friday, BC
cycle

SECTION: State and Regional

LENGTH: 648 words

HEADLINE: Score at the Legislature: Hogs 1, Chickens
yet to bat

BYLINE: By KEVIN McGILL, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: BATON ROUGE, La.

BODY:

   Come Wednesday night we'll find out just who has
the real political muscle at the Legislature - the
hogs or the chickens.

   The hogs have the upper hand so far. Rep. Warren
Triche's bill that would outlaw violent "hog-dog"
events in which pit bulls are set upon de-tusked boars
was passed by the House of Representatives 75-25 last
week and was sent to the Senate, where a procedural
effort to derail it was defeated Thursday afternoon.

   Rep. Karen Carter's measure to outlaw cockfighting
hasn't even had a committee hearing yet in the House;
and there's a widespread feeling on the House floor
that it won't get out of the House Agriculture
Committee, which is scheduled to debate it Wednesday
night.

   Both bills are aimed at events that various animal
welfare groups say are barbaric and cruel, but there's
a definite dichotomy at work here: Triche only got his
bill passed after fighting off an attempt to amend the
anti-cockfighting language into it.

   "I figure 20 people from Acadiana alone would have
voted against it if cockfighting was included,"
Triche, D-Thibodaux, said last week.

   Subtract those 20 people, plus at least a few
others from rural areas where cockfighting is popular,
and Triche's bill would have fallen short of the 53
needed for House passage.

   Triche himself said he will vote to outlaw
cockfighting - "unless I have an overwhelming flood of
phone calls from my constituents who are in favor of
it."

   So why is one bill flying easily through the
Legislature while the other appears stalled?

   Money is one reason. Consider that cockfighters
claim Louisiana already stands to lose some $206
million in business because of a recent federal ban on
the interstate transport of fighting cocks.

   In the town of Sunset, restaurateurs - even the
local barber - lamented the loss of walk-in business
from out-of-state cockfighters in interviews with The
Associated Press earlier this year.

   And that's the aboveboard economy. Cockfighting
opponents say that illegal gambling on the bouts
thrives.

   Cockfighting also appears to be a more deeply
ingrained part of Louisiana culture than the hog-dog
events, which have only been getting publicity in
recent years.

   Just before the legislative session started, the
Humane Society and The Fund For Animals released a
poll of 503 likely Louisiana voters and found that 82
percent would like to see cockfighting banned; 71
percent said they were strongly against it.

   Carter, D-New Orleans, said she's seen lots of
letters to the editors of state newspapers and has had
calls and e-mails on the subject but acknowledges that
her colleagues, so far, don't seem to perceive
overwhelming voter outrage at cockfighting.

   No surprise in Louisiana, where voters apparently
countenance a state animal cruelty law that can't
touch cockfighters because it specifically states that
fowl shall not be defined as animals.

   House Agriculture Committee Chairman Francis
Thompson, who promises a fair hearing on Carter's bill
Wednesday night, may have summed up the feeling of a
lot of people last week in an interview with the AP.
Admitting to little familiarity with either hog-dog
events or cockfights, he said the cockfights somehow
seem less objectionable. "It's less gory, in my
opinion," Thompson, D-Delhi, said.

   Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, may also be on
to something.

   Richmond, on Wednesday, was having a bad day at the
office - or, rather, a bad day at the House Criminal
Justice Committee, which made short work of various
gun control bills he was sponsoring.

   Lamenting the defeat of his bills, he noted the
great attention being paid hog-dog events and
cockfights.

   "Across the state we have real live human beings
being killed every day," Richmond said. "And I don't
see that same kind of concern."

   ---

   Editor's Note: Kevin McGill covers state government
for The Associated Press


   LOAD-DATE: May 1, 2004


	
		
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