AR-News: New York Times- The Politics of Cockfighting

[Political Animal]

www.nytimes.com/2004/05/16/politics/campaign/16POIN.html?ex=1085284800&en=fd31dcb5fa46fad8&ei=5062

 

 

POLITICAL POINTS 

The Politics of Cockfighting
By JOHN TIERNEY

Published: May 16, 2004




HOULD cockfighting be legal? Should it be regulated at
the state or federal level? And exactly where, in the
moral hierarchy, does it rank in relation to hog-dog
rodeos? 

Perhaps you have not spent a lot of time contemplating
these ethical quandaries. But since cockfighting is
now a political issue that might help determine
control of the United States Senate next year, you may
want to get up to speed.


  
 

 
The Louisiana Legislature is considering a bill to ban
hog-dog rodeos, in which a boar, after having its
tusks cut off, is chased around a pen by a pit bull.
The proposed ban is not especially controversial — it
has passed one chamber and is expected to pass the
other soon — but it has helped renew another debate.
Why, if it is wrong for a dog to fight a hog, is it
still legal in Louisiana for roosters to go after each
other with blades attached to their legs? Hog-dog fans
(yes, there are a few) indignantly protest that while
the hog usually survives their event (because handlers
intervene once the dog has the hog between his teeth),
fighting roosters often kill each other.

One of the Democrats running for the Senate in
Louisiana, John Kennedy, has come out against
cockfighting and criticized one of his rivals,
Representative Chris John, who once called
cockfighting a "cultural, family-type thing" and
opposed efforts in Congress to ban the interstate
shipment of fighting birds. A political action
committee run by Wayne Pacelle, the chief executive of
the Humane Society of the United States, is also
taking aim at Mr. John. A poll commissioned by the
Humane Society showed that 82 percent of Louisianans
favored banning cockfights.

Mr. John, understandably, seems reluctant to be
labeled the cockfighting candidate. "They're trying to
make this a campaign issue, but it really isn't one,"
said his campaign manager, Scott Arceneaux. "Chris has
taken no position on the state law. He has simply been
against federal legislation that would outlaw the
practice. He believes this is an issue for the states
to decide."

 




	
		
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