| Gullibility |
| A Letter to a State Dear Mississippi; I am a Virginian but I have long been a fan of Mississippi. It isn't just because of William Faulkner or your famous duck hunting. It is mainly from all of your sons I had the privilege to work with over the years. They were all rural guys with bedrock American values and a love for their home. The fact that you don't have a big city to steer your state in goofy directions like most other states is probably a big factor in your ability to maintain the values and freedoms that the Federal government is slowly absorbing from the other states. This nation is involved in a struggle to determine whether our future will be one of individual rights and freedoms like you know in Mississippi or whether it will be the future envisioned by the environmental and animal rights radicals who are growing the Federal bureaucracy to enforce laws meant to make people like you forfeit your way of life. They aim to do away with the Mississippi way of life and replace it everywhere with Brooklyns run by Federal bureaucrats and environmental and animal rights activists. Restrictions on hunting and fishing, endangered species taking peoples property, state agencies acting more like units of Federal agencies, restrictions on dog breeding and dog ownership, forced introduction of deadly predators, closures of public lands, restrictions on public land use, devastation of rural communities, and restrictions on circuses, cockfighting, and rodeos are but a few of the things growing worse each year. I mention this because as we look for ways to preserve our American values and freedoms, a state like Mississippi may hold the key. The key for all of us may be a state with rural and traditional values and no big city to overshadow it to show the way for the rest of us. If your state and local politicians can stand up to the environmental and animal rights radical organizations that are steadily stopping all domestic and wild animal use maybe, just maybe, other state and local politicians can take heart and follow your lead. If your US Representatives and your US Senators can be advocates for citizen rights to use the environment and public lands we will all benefit. If they can also stand tall for the use of wild (public property held in trust) and domestic (private property) animals, your influence on the United States may never be greater or more needed. America's past reflects a society where Catholics and Protestants, blacks and whites, and rural societies like Mississippi and urban communities like New York recognized their differences and agreed to live and work together for the benefit of each other. Today the environmental and animal rights extremists want to divide us, depopulate the rural places like Mississippi, make us all vegetarians, remove most of the rural population into urban centers, and place us under an all powerful central government. Mississippians, it may very well be that you are the best hope for America's future. While we struggle to keep our pets and our duck blinds we can only ask a fair state like yours to use your unique strengths to preserve the freedoms that have made America and Mississippi great. Thanks. Jim Beers 29 January 2004 |
Culture clash
Michael Hernandez wants to bring back the Friday night fights. The cockfights, that is, and legal ones.
Standing outside his residence off West U.S. Highway 50 on Jan. 19, Hernandez pointed to some of the male chickens he has been raising since 1980. Some of them could be fighters, he said, but if he can't do it in his home county, he might stop raising them.
"Right now, this could be the last time we see this," he said.
Nearly two years after state legislation eliminated any gray legal territory over the sticky subject of cockfighting, Hernandez said, he feels like the law was a strike against his culture and the eliminator of a potential source of state revenue.
Now, he said, he is trying to feel out support to look at changing the law. Since August 2002, he said, he has been trying to contact elected state officials like Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; Rep. Ward Loyd, R-Garden City; and Sen. Steve Morris, R-Hugoton; as well as local groups like the American Legion, to make his case.
In a match, he said, gamecocks are weighed and put into classifications that cannot vary by more than two ounces, then each is fitted with a "boot" on each leg's natural spur with items like a one-inch knife.
The cocks, he said, are put in a ring where they will fight until one either dies or a bird's beak hits the ground twice.
Cockfighting has been around in Finney County since the turn of the century, brought north from Mexico, Hernandez said, and is as much a part of the culture as mariachi music.
In fact, Hernandez said, the practice is comparable with the tradition of pheasant hunting that no one is trying to outlaw.
"How can we be criminals if it was passed down as part of our culture?" he said.
He pointed to a clearing of packed dirt in a shelter outside his home near a couple of roosters in cages.
"To tell you the truth, we used to do it here because there was no law against it," he said.
The recent law, he said, became effective July 2002 and specifically prohibits gamecocks from being set to injure one another.
According to a list compiled in October by The Humane Society of the United States, cockfighting is illegal in all states except New Mexico and Louisiana.
Kansas is one of 18 states where it is a misdemeanor offense. In Kansas, it is legal to own the implements of the practice and the fighting gamecocks, but a misdemeanor to organize or attend a match.
Not that it means it isn't still happening in the area. Hernandez said it is still happening in Finney County, Dodge City, Emporia and Wichita, though he doesn't participate himself.
"Every Friday night, they're having a chicken fight," Hernandez said. "It's a big sport."
Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue said the county hasn't had any investigations on cockfighting in recent years.
"That's not to say it isn't happening. Never say never," he said. "I can only speculate that I'm sure it's going. It's just a little more covert."
At least once in recent history a cockfighting operation was broken up by the sheriff's office. In late December 1998, deputies responded to an address in Yucca Drive and seized $2,138, along with spurs, scales and roosters while about 25 people were observed at the fight.
Even before state law changed, both Bascue and Garden City Police Department Capt. Mike Utz said cockfighting can still be interpreted to violate the state's cruelty to animals and gambling statutes.
Glenda Hopkins, president of the Finney County Humane Society, said her group's basic objection would be to the suffering animals undergo during the fights.
"I can't see a positive part to any of the thought of legalization," she said. "Personally, I think it teaches people that animals are worthless throwaway items."
The argument that it is a cultural tradition, she said, doesn't make it right.
"In some other countries, cutting other people's hands off because they're convicted of stealing is part of some cultures," she said.
But aside from being a cultural issue, Hernandez said, he feels cockfighting and the betting it brings in could mean serious money to a state in need of extra revenue. In New Mexico, he said, the events obey tax law and have entry fees, as well as the money brought in by concession sales and tourism.
"It's an honest way for people to make a living who can't get a good job," he said. "I love these birds. I love to take care of them, but I want to bring in some money."
David Sells, a veterinarian with Garden City Veterinary Clinic, said he grew up with cockfighting in Lyons and can remember roosters piercing an opponent's lungs, causing the unlucky one to choke on his own blood. Though one rooster would sometimes quit in matches, he said, most often one ended up dead.
"To me, that's just inhumane," he said. "I don't think it's worth the money."
Right or wrong, the practice is currently illegal.
Loyd said the only way to change the law either would be to convince a legislator to sponsor changes or to drum up the public support to make legislators take notice. Right now, he said, Hernandez would have a better chance with the second option.
"I haven't heard any discussion about it from a legislative standpoint," he said. "As I indicated to Mr. Hernandez, I do not perceive there is support."
Source http://www.gctelegram.com/news/2004/january/30/story1.htmlBy CHRIS W. COLBY, cwcolby@naplesnews.com
An East Naples man whose cockfighting case sparked a
feud between prominent Naples defense attorneys was sentenced Friday to prison.
Victor A. Valdes received concurrent terms of 10 years in prison on two
drug-related charges and five years in the cockfighting case. The drug counts
are unrelated to the cockfighting charge, which is a felony.
Valdes, 42, was represented by Mike Carr, an attorney well-known for his
opposition to animal cruelty. He has lobbied state lawmakers for stiffer
sentences for those convicted of animal cruelty and performed free legal work
for several animal rights groups and people involved in such cases.
Carr's representation of Valdes drew criticism last year from Donald Day, who
accused Carr of hypocrisy by representing a client who's charged with crimes
that Carr has vocally, actively opposed.
Carr defended himself, saying Valdes is a family friend. The drug charges
were much more serious than the animal cruelty, otherwise he likely wouldn't
have taken the case, Carr said.
Valdes was arrested Feb. 14, 2002, and charged with running a cockfighting
operation out of his Lafayette Lane home. Investigators found about 300 fighting
roosters in cages on Valdes' property, according to the arrest report. Also
inside were a ring used for fighting, ledgers showing results from previous
fights and spurs for the roosters' feet to inflict damage on their opponent.
In addition to the one count of cockfighting, he was also charged with two
counts of trafficking in cocaine, two counts of drug sale and one felony count
of drug possession.
Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Miller sentenced Valdes, who pleaded no contest
to all six charges, to concurrent sentences of five and 10 years, the latter of
which was for the trafficking counts.
Valdes also received a $100,000 fine, according to court
records.
Source http://www.naplesnews.com/npdn/news/article/0,2071,NPDN_14940_2618705,00.html
CHINO - More than 150 birds believed to be bred for cockfighting were confiscated and later destroyed when authorities raided a house Thursday in Chino, humane society officials said.
Investigators also found training equipment, performance-enhancing drugs and knives, which are often attached to roosters' feet during fights, at the home in the 12800 block of Wright Avenue, said Allie Jalbert, cruelty investigator with the Inland Valley Humane Society & SPCA.
Following an investigation that began in November 2003, authorities descended on the half-acre lot belonging to Rafael and Lilia Cueva, who were not arrested and voluntarily gave up the fowl, which included both roosters and hens.
Many of the birds showed evidence of previous injuries, including one with a missing eye. All were euthanized because of their aggressiveness and lingering fears over the spread of exotic Newcastle disease.
"They're fighting cocks," Jalbert said "and aren't really adoptable animals."
The Chino Police Department and Chino code enforcement assisted the humane society in its investigation.
- Jannise Johnson, (909) 483-9318
Source http://www.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,203~21481~1926396,00.html
100 years young, and still dancing
By Mel Orpilla