Vietnam cock fights resume as bird flu ebbs
The epidemic has killed 20 people in Asia but the popular sport has made a comeback after the government pronounced a lull in the outbreak in Vietnam, where about 15 percent of 250 million poultry have been killed or culled because of the H5N1 virus.
Police in southern Ho Chi Minh City, one of the areas worst hit by the bird flu, detained 13 gamblers last week for participating in a cock fight.
Police destroyed the five birds involved in the incident, the Ho Chi Minh City Police newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Maria Cheng, spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation in Hanoi, said the rules on poultry control should be applied equally to all poultry whether for consumption or recreation.
"All chickens exposed to the virus should be culled," she said.
Cock fights were held openly in downtown parks in the capital Hanoi at the weekend, even though authorities had ordered the slaughter of all poultry in the city this month.
But Hanoi transport worker Nguyen Quang Trung, 35, who owns 27 fighting chickens and has reared the special breed for 13 years, is still keeping a low profile.
"I'm not putting them in fights now," he told Reuters on Tuesday. "I think maybe only after the authorities allow us to transport chickens again."
He said his bigger chickens cost between $50 and $100 and that he has protected his flock by isolating them and feeding them medicine.
Infected fighting cocks, including valuable birds some owners were accused of hiding, have been found in former "red zones" in Thailand, where the government had ordered mass culls. The discovery dashed Bangkok's hopes of an early end to the outbreak.
The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organisation is not surprised that some of the avian gladiators escaped slaughter.
"We have said all along there is a worry that people will try to evade the directives of animal health services to cull their animals. They want to protect their source of revenue," said Anton Rychener, Vietnam FAO representative.
You
Don't Think Vegan Wayne Would Lie, Do You?
Pa.
one step closer to hunters' rights amendment
Associated Press
Long one of the most powerful voting blocs in the state, hunters in Pennsylvania are moving forward with a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would guarantee the "right of the people to hunt and fish."
Hunters say the amendment, similar to laws and constitutional amendments enacted in 11 states in recent years, would protect their sport from what they say are attacks by animal-rights advocates and other groups that advocate hunting restrictions.
"The fact that it's standing there as a constitutional 'right' means something," said Bob Ging, a lawyer and hunter in Confluence, southeast of Pittsburgh, who sits on a gubernatorial sportsmen's advisory panel.
The amendment, sponsored by Rep. Matt Baker, R-Tioga, was passed by the House yesterday and sent to the Senate. It would have to be passed by the General Assembly in two successive legislative sessions before it could be put on the ballot to be decided on by voters.
Alabama, California, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia and Louisiana already recognize the right to hunt, fish or trap.
While it is unclear exactly what the Pennsylvania amendment would do in practice, one legal expert said it could have unintended consequences and possibly end up conflicting with federal endangered-species laws.
"It could get into sprawl, into environment," said David Kairys, a constitutional law professor at Temple University Law School.
Animal-rights groups say they just want to stop what they consider the most inhumane practices, such as the use of steel-jawed traps and the organized hunting of exotic animals for a fee.
"But are we trying to stop deer hunting?" said Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president for the Humane Society of the United States. "No. We're trying to curb the more inhumane and unsportsmanlike practices."
The amendment could go before voters as early as 2005.
Source: http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/sports/7970208.htm