Sen. Nell Soto, D-Ontario, said she sponsored the bill because cockfighting contributes to the spread of exotic Newcastle disease, which has spurred agriculture officials to place a quarantine on birds in most of Southern California.
The disease spreads easily from bird to bird through feces and bodily fluids, but poses no health risk to humans.
But putting harsher penalties on cockfighters could actually hurt the effort to fight Newcastle, said Bucky Harless, a spokesman for the Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl. He contends that 'cockers' will be afraid to give information about their birds.
"The harsher you make the punishment, the further you're driving it underground,' he said.
The law now treats cockfighting as a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail with a fine of up to $1,000. Soto's bill would mandate a six-month jail sentence for a second conviction. Those convicted twice also would face maximum fines of up to $25,000. Spectators at cockfights are exempt.
Harless said the measure could hurt the families of cockfighters. He said a father could lose a half-year's pay, or his job, because of the mandatory sentencing. Most cockfighters obey the law, except for the ones against their hobby, Harless said.
Soto said that is no excuse for participating in a "cruel and inhumane' sport.
"That logic doesn't make any sense to me,' she said. "Is it OK to break the law if it's a small law?'
The original version of Soto's bill would have given prosecutors authority to treat cockfighting as a felony. That provision was taken out when other senators worried about cockfighters getting 25 years-to-life sentences under California's three-strikes law.
Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, was one of two in the Senate who voted against the measure.
"My reaction was, 'We're talking about serious penalties for chickens to kill themselves,'' Ashburn said. "When the victim is a chicken, that doesn't rise to the right level of seriousness for me.'
Harless said cockfighting, which is thousands of years old, will survive in the state in spite of any increased penalties. For many families, it's a tradition handed down from generation to generation, he said.
"They can make any law they want and the sport won't go away,' Harless said.
Officials of the joint federal-state task force set up to stamp out exotic Newcastle said they have no evidence that cockfighters are responsible for the introduction and spread of the disease.
But communication with gamefowl breeders is a key element in quelling the outbreak, according to Larry Cooper, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Harless said the state's cockfighters have been cooperative with state and federal officials who are trying to eradicate the disease.
Source: http://www.sbsun.com/Stories/0,1413,208~12588~1388896,00.html
| PETA CALLED TERROR-BACKER |
| A SHADOWY organization that
claims to be a consumer watchdog group is accusing the animal-loving folks
at PETA of sponsoring domestic terrorism.
The Center for Consumer Freedom claims that an investigation of PETA's IRS records shows "numerous cases in which the activist group has financed the legal defenses of affiliates of the radical Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front." The CCF will broadcast its accusations nationally, beginning with an ad that will air on Fox News Channel today, followed by spots on CNN and MSNBC throughout the week. "This ad uncovers a darker side of PETA, of which many are unaware," says a CCF press release. "Crimes by the ALF/ELF have become so serious that the FBI has had to devote major resources to investigation." However, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk says the so-called consumer group is not the benevolent association that it portrays itself to be. "This is a front group for Philip Morris, several logging companies out West, as well as Outback Steakhouse," Newkirk tells PAGE SIX's Ian Spiegelman. Newkirk blasted CCF founder Rick Berman, saying, "He goes around founding these groups and makes a great deal of money from them. All he and his wife do is look at our tax returns and twist things around." Asked if PETA money had gone to either of the radical groups in question, Newkirk said that $1,500 of her organization's $20 million budget had once been paid to a lawyer to testify at a congressional investigation into the Animal Liberation Front. PETA also paid to defend a Native American who broke into a college library to steal a tribal diary that had been looted from the tribe by Gen. George Custer. "The companies Rick Berman works for kill people every day," says Newkirk. "He fought against lowering the alcohol level for drunk driving. He preys on people's fears that the world is about to change." CCF's ad campaign also uses PETA's own words against it by featuring comments made by vegan campaign coordinator Bruce Friedrich at a 2001 animal-rights conference: "If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then, of course, we're going to be blowing things up and smashing windows." |