by Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund
Daily Lobo
Columnist
Cockfighting in New Mexico is alive and well.
Cockfighting died in committee so we are stuck with this so-called sport
for another year at least unless a miracle happens. Five members of the senate
committee decided that animal cruelty in New Mexico is alive and well and we
should continue it because it is a "tradition." I am surprised that one of these
five so-called "representatives of the people" didn't introduce a bill to
legalize dog fighting. Then we could have two species to torture in the name of
"tradition." Maybe we can bring bullfighting to the State Fair this
year.
If you aren't familiar with cockfighting, two roosters are fitted
with three-inch long ice pick-like knives or hooked gaffs. They are put into a
pit where they will fight until one or both of them are severely injured or
dead. The gaffs inflict deep puncture wounds, eyes are gouged out and legs and
wings are often broken. The birds are drugged before the match with stimulants
such as strychnine or methamphetamines so they can fight without feeling the
pain they are in. If they falter during the fight, the handlers pick them up and
blow in their faces to revive them.
According to an investigator for The
Humane Society of the United States, "Even if one bird is half dead, the
handlers don't stop the fight. The bird may be bleeding, stunned, and wounded,
but he will be kept fighting, even if he can only lie there in fear and terror
while the other bird keeps attacking him."
The match isn't over until one
bird is unable to continue, even with prodding, or is dead. Survivors whose eyes
are gouged out, or are slashed or blinded are pitted together in "blinker
derbies," where they are forced to continue to fight until only one bird is
barely still alive. All the time the spectators are betting on the outcome. At
the end of the night, all the losing birds are thrown on a "dead" pile, even
though some of them aren't quite dead. One person told me of a handler stomping
his rooster to death because he lost the fight (and apparently some of his
handler's money).
When I wrote a column about this subject several weeks
ago in the Albuquerque Journal, I heard from a number of cockfighters. One told
me he didn't like dog fights because they were cruel. When I asked him the
difference, he said that dogs were animals, but roosters were just chickens.
Apparently, chickens don't feel any pain. Another fellow wrote and told me that
they invented chickens a couple of thousand years ago so they could fight. So
much for the theory of evolution. And one fellow told me that George Washington
was a cockfighter because he attended a cockfight. I went to a football game
once, but I guarantee you that I am not a quarterback.
Finally, another
fellow told me they put knives and gaffs on the roosters because it is more
humane. He said that if they fight with their natural spurs they could get an
infection. He was serious.
There is the contention that cockfighting is
conducive to gambling and drug use. I am not of the illusion that eliminating
cockfighting will eliminate drug use or gambling. If we eliminate all activities
where drugs are used or illegal gambling takes place, there wouldn't be anything
to do. Football, baseball, basketball, boxing and almost all other sports have
their share of gambling and drug use. My focus on eliminating cockfighting is
based solely on the cruelty to the birds.
Almost all of the reasons I
heard for keeping cockfighting legal are as completely and totally vacuous as
the ones I mentioned. Apparently Manny Aragon and his cohorts in the senate
committee bought that nonsense. So much for representing the 81 percent of the
people who abhor this activity.
Only in New Mexico (and Louisiana) can
animal cruelty and sport be synonymous.
I am working on a book about
cockfighting, dog fighting, fox hunting, clubbing baby seals, rattlesnake
roundups and some of our other so-called sports and activities. I will be
writing about some of these other fun things people do to animals in future
columns. I would welcome any comments on any of these or similar activities,
either pro or con.
Richard Fagerlund can be reached at
fagerlun@unm.edu.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) - Mounted on the walls of the game room at boxer Roy
Jones' 80-acre ranch are an eight-foot alligator caught in a pond behind his
house, a deer, a large bass and a wild boar.
The trophies make Jones think of his upcoming heavyweight debut against John
Ruiz.
"I'm the hunter," Jones said Wednesday. "I'm coming to get him. My life may
be on the line. I have to kill or be killed."
Ruiz enjoys a 35-pound weight advantage and went a total of 36 rounds with
Evander Holyfield in three fights, winning one, losing one and earning a draw in
the other. So Jones considers himself an underdog, even though oddsmakers regard
the light heavyweight champion as the favorite in the March 1 fight in Las
Vegas.
"People want to see this big guy pounding on me," Jones said. "They want to
know can I take it. They say, 'We haven't seen you take a real punch.'
"He might knock me down 100 times, but I'll get up 101 times."
Jones, who said he weighs less than 190 pounds, is trying to join Michael
Spinks as the only reigning light heavyweight champions to win the heavyweight
title. He also hopes to become the first former middleweight champion to earn
the heavyweight crown since the 1890s.
"Everybody wants to do what hasn't been done," Jones said. "That's what
life's about. That's what sports is all about. That's why I'm doing it."
The Ruiz bout is motivating Jones to rededicate himself to his training. He
gets up at 5 a.m. each day to run instead of playing pickup basketball games
late at night. He's working out in New Orleans, yet said he doesn't even know
where Bourbon Street is.
Jones regards making the U.S. Olympic boxing team in 1988 as his greatest
achievement. He said he doesn't want to dwell on how much beating Ruiz would
mean to him.
"I'm not thinking about that, or I might pass out before I do it," he said as
his cockfighting roosters crowed in the background.
Jones said he hopes the bout will silence critics who contend he has avoided
tough fights and can't take a punch.
"If I get a 12-round decision, that's not spectacular," Jones said. "But if I
knock him out..."
Jones, accustomed to fighting in a 175-pound division, has called his move up
to heavyweight a one-shot deal. But on Wednesday he declined to rule out
anything beyond the bout with Ruiz.
"I wake up just thinking about getting into a fight," he said. "That's how
much I like fighting. There's something about me. I don't like to leave any
stone unturned."
Might that include a fight against 6-foot-5, 250-pound Lennox Lewis?
"He's got no stones in my neighborhood," Jones said, laughing. "I ain't
crazy. But I'll not say, 'I will not do it.'"
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Source: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/boxing/2003/feb/12/021208500.html