AUMSVILLE - Steve Clark scans his 2 acres to make sure none of his 150 fighting birds have gotten free. The battlers from the Asian jungles squawk and tug against leashes around their right legs, driven by an instinct to attack surrounding birds.

The roosters are housed in little steel tepees, shelter from the rain. Each plot is about 10 feet apart. Occasionally a bird will hop onto its tepee, open its red and black feathers and crow a war cry.

For Clark there is a double price to pay if a bird gets free. It will seek out the nearest bird and fight to the death. And neighbors might complain that Clark is allowing cockfighting on his farm.

Although cockfighting is illegal in Oregon, raising these feisty roosters for export to other states and countries is not.

But a bill pending in the Legislature would ban raising the birds for fighting purposes. It would also make cockfighting a felony, raising its current misdemeanor status.

"Oregon used to be a live and let live state," said Clark as he picked up a bird and examined its claws. "All we've asked for is to be left alone."

Push to change law

For years, animal rights groups have been pushing to close the loophole in Oregon's law, one they say promotes a cruel industry and condones cockfighting within the state.

"These birds suffer punctured lungs, broken bones and pierced eyes," said Kelly Peterson from the Humane Society. "And this is for entertainment and for money."

Hoping to get a boost from a recent federal law that bans transporting the fighting birds across state lines, proponents of House Bill 2086 believe this time the tougher restrictions will pass the Legislature.

In 2001, a similar state bill flew through the House only to be stalled and then buried in the Senate. This session it's passed in the House and now goes to the Senate.

Breeders such as Clark say they shouldn't be shut down because they themselves are not staging cockfights, just breeding the birds. Clark points out he doesn't train the birds to fight, and that he's not responsible for how the birds are used by their purchasers.

To illustrate the birds' natural fighting tendencies, Clark picks one up with both hands and walks a few feet toward another leashed bird.

Within a fraction of a second, their beaks lurch forward, the red feathers around their necks flare, and their skinny legs slash in an inward motion, so fast they become blurry.

"I don't make them fight," said Clark, stopping before the birds touch each other. "God makes them fight."

Economic benefits

Rich soil and damp air make Oregon one of the best places in the country to raise the birds. The Oregon Gamefowl Breeders Association counts 450 breeders across the state, and estimates it's a $9 million industry.

Indeed, in the face of strong opposition by many Oregonians to anything associated with cockfighting, the economic benefits are perhaps the breeders' strongest defense.

Clark is a good example. For 40 years, he's shipped birds to Malaysia, Mexico and the Philippines, places where cockfighting is wildly popular in many circles. The 65-year-old also sends birds to New Mexico and Louisiana, the two states where cockfighting is still legal.

Male roosters command $225 each, hens about $75. With only a small piece of land, and minimal costs, Clark says he earned $28,000 last year, $40,000 the year before.

"It's becoming a widespread growth product, environmentally sound and one that can support income on a small amount of ground," said Larry Mathews, a Silverton area breeder who also represents the Oregon Gamefowl Breeders Association.

In 2001, many Oregon senators got behind the economic argument.

Leading the opposition was Sen. Roger Beyer, a Molalla Republican. Beyer says this session he'll again oppose the legislation.

"The bill is a direct assault on rural Oregon," Beyer said. "It will force people out of the business of raising birds because if one of their birds ends up in a cockfight they will get a felony."

Arguments for and against

Proponents of the bill say only those who are raising the birds for fighting purposes will be put out of business - the bill allows breeding them for nonfighting purposes, such as bird shows or to sell as food.

"You are allowed to raise the game fowl for their feathers, which many think are pretty," said Rep. Max Williams, chairman of the House committee that pushed the cockfighting bill.

The Tigard Republican said a similar ban on raising fierce dogs like pitbulls for fighting didn't hinder dog breeders.

But many bird breeders say a tougher state law - and making cockfighting a felony - will mean harassment from law enforcement and animal rights groups, even for breeders who are not raising the birds for fighting. And they argue that it's impossible to control what someone does with the birds once bought.

"How do we interpret the intent of the customer any more than the pet store owner knows the pets are going to happy and healthy homes?" said Johnathon Schlueter from the Northwest Poultry Council, which represents poultry farmers in Oregon and Washington.

Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president at the Humane Society of the United States, says that argument attempts to blur clear lines of connection between breeders of fighting birds and those who organize cockfights.

"There is no distinction between breeders and fighters," said Pacelle. "It's cockfighting under the guise of something else."

Source: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2003/03/17/b3.or.cockfighting.0317.html