Gamefowl breeders rally to keep cockfighting
legal OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Gamefowl breeders demanded legislation Wednesday that
would exempt rural Oklahomans from a voter-approved ban on cockfighting, calling
the blood sport part of the culture of rural America.
By TIM TALLEY
The Associated
Press
"Our belief in our freedom is what it's about," said Sen. Frank Shurden, who has authored a bill to authorize cockfighting on a county-option basis.
"What the Humane Society (of the United States) and the people of Oklahoma did was wrong," said Shurden, D-Henryetta. "What we've got to do is counteract this thing. We have our way of life."
Nativo V. Lopez of Los Angeles, national director of the National Mexican Brotherhood, said his organization supports Hispanic gamecock breeders who continue to operate in Oklahoma.
"Our culture and our history was cockfighting," Lopez said. "The founders of our country were cockfighters."
Breeders, many wearing T-shirts that read "Unity is Strength," shouted "Viva Mexico!" as Lopez addressed Hispanic breeders in Spanish.
"This has never been about chickens," said Kelly Barger, a gamefowl breeder from Pawnee. "This has been about personal rights, personal freedoms and personal liberties that we were granted under the Constitution."
Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the Humane Society, said the statewide ban should remain in effect in Oklahoma and that cockfighting should also be banned in Louisiana and New Mexico, the only two states where it remains legal.
"We think there should be no safe haven for cockfighters in the United States," Pacelle said.
"Cockfighters instigate fights between animals for amusement and illegal gambling. In a society that bans dogfighting everywhere, cockfighting should be banned with a similar reach," he said.
Legislation proposed in Congress would make it a felony to transport birds or other animals for fighting. The measure also would ban the transportation of gaffs, the spiked steel blades worn by game cocks during a match.
A statewide referendum that made cockfighting a felony in Oklahoma passed by a 125,000-vote margin in November 2002, but it failed in 57 of the state's 77 counties, mostly in rural areas.
Breeders have won injunctions against enforcement of the ban in 34 counties where cockfighting is still legal.
Cockfighters claim the ban is unconstitutionally vague and deprives them of their property. The ban makes possessing game cocks for fighting and taking part in cockfights a felony.
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has been asked to decide the issue.
Shurden has also proposed legislation to reduce cockfighting from a felony to
a misdemeanor
"We have better ways to spend our money than making our good citizens criminals," said Anthony W.H. DeVore, a native of Durant and criminal justice program director at the Southeastern Career Institute in Dallas.
Shurden said gamefowl breeding is a $100 million business in Oklahoma and that the ban has hurt breeders and communities where breeders operate.
"This is not chicken feed. This is big stuff," Shurden said.
Source http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040204/APN/402041011
Source
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-7/107593194058970.xml
"I am not a coat," words on the billboard state, in an emotional, visual appeal to dissuade consumers from buying a fur coat to keep warm this winter.
The message apparently didn't tug at the heartstrings of someone carrying a can of blue spray paint.
After "I am not a coat," someone added the words, "But I aspire to be."
"I think it's a shame people had to vandalize it," said Jennifer Manka, treasurer of Animal Advocates of Western New York.
The local group and the Humane Society of the United States put up the billboard in mid-December.
"We wanted to help get the word out with the cruelty in the fur industry," said Randy Atlas, acting president of Animal Advocates.
The vandalism occurred about Jan. 1, Manka said. The group learned of it when it started getting phone calls about it. The Humane Society is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
"While we respect the right of people to disagree with our position that animals should not be killed for their fur, it's distressing that someone would choose to express their differing opinion by vandalizing and defacing this billboard," said Andrea Cimino, wildlife campaign manager for the Humane Society.
Manka filed a report with Cheektowaga police, and anyone with information is asked to call police at 686-3505. Manka listed the damage as $186, which is the cost to buy another poster to put on the billboard. But there isn't enough time to get another poster made, she said, so the billboard will stay up for about another week.
e-mail: bobrien@buffnews.com
Source
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040205/1042050.asp
by Hank Pellissier, special to SF Gate
Bruce Friedrich is a Catholic from the Midwest who was recently rated No. 5
on Details magazine's 2003 list of "The 50 Most Influential People Under 38" --
ahead of Tiger Woods, Leonardo di Caprio and Justin Timberlake. What has
Friedrich done to deserve his high standing? Surprise answer: He's an animal
rights activist on the governing board of the Catholic Vegetarian Society and
the advisory board of the Christian Vegetarian Society. He is also a founding
member of the Society of Religious and Ethical Vegetarians, and he's director of
vegan campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). I
interviewed him via telephone as he was flying from PETA headquarters in
Virginia to an assignment in India.
Hi, Bruce. Your opinion is that Catholics -- and all other Christians -- should be vegetarians?
Jesus' message is about love and compassion, but there is nothing loving or compassionate at factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals endure miserable lives and die violent deaths. Jesus mandates kindness and mercy for all God's creatures. He'd be appalled by the suffering that we inflict on animals today to indulge our acquired taste for their flesh.
<snip>No animal cruelty charges were filed. Several people who pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and paid their fines were allowed to retrieve their roosters, said Nicholas County Deputy Sheriff W.K. Shafer.
Two dead roosters were found and 17 live roosters were seized and sent to an animal shelter, Shafer said.
"One rooster that was almost dead had its eye poked," Shafer said. "There were feathers in the rink."
It is legal to possess fighting birds in West Virginia, but a misdemeanor to run or watch cockfighting matches. The charge carries fines of $100 to $1,000 and up to one year in jail, said Nicholas County Magistrate John Morton.
Shafer said the raid occurred Jan. 25 on W.Va. 82 near Birch River in a carport-like structure "built for cockfighting."
"We went up there and walked up to the gate, people then started running from the scene," Shafer said Wednesday. "There was plenty of evidence left there that they were actually cockfighting."
Steel spurs, scales to weigh roosters and strings to tie their legs together were also found, he said.
One suspect removed his orange coveralls and fled, but left his shoes behind, Shafer said.
"It was snowing that day," he said. "He just took off running without his shoes. He was probably in the woods for at least two hours."
The man then returned to the scene, and officers let him warm his feet inside a vehicle, Shafer said.
The raid followed a tip from a resident who lives near the site.
"Basically with that many people present and that close to other houses and also close to a state route, you know, what do they expect?" Shafer said. "It's kind of like spinning your tires out in the middle of town."
Source http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2004020511/