On the Ropes: Louisiana High Court Strikes a Major Blow against Cockfighting

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The Louisiana Supreme Court upheld a local ordinance banning cockfighting.

In an opinion that will put the squeeze on cockfighters in the state, the Louisiana Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a Caddo Parish ordinance banning cockfighting, reversing two lower court decisions that found the ban to be beyond the power of local authorities under the state constitution.

"The supreme court has made clear that Louisiana will no longer be a safe-haven for cockfighters," said Jonathan R. Lovvorn, vice president of animal protection litigation for The Humane Society of the United States. "Local communities in Louisiana can now make their own choices about whether to tolerate this cruel bloodsport."

Cockfighting involves pitting specially bred roosters against one another in a fight to the death. Birds are typically drugged to heighten their aggression, outfitted with razor-sharp knives or ice-pick-like gaffs strapped to their legs, and placed in a pit to fight one another. The birds suffer punctured lungs, gouged eyes, and other grievous wounds in the process. 

In response to this unmistakable cruelty, 48 states have outlawed cockfighting, including 32 that have made it a felony. Louisiana and New Mexico are the only two states that still allow cockfighting. Caddo Parish banned the practice in 1987, and several other local parishes have also enacted ordinances banning cockfighting.

The promoters and operators of cockfighting pits in Caddo Parish did not take the ban lying down. They filed a lawsuit, claiming that the parish had infringed upon the state's inherent police powers. Two lower courts agreed, ruling that Caddo Parish authorities lacked the power to prohibit cockfighting. After the Louisiana Supreme Court agreed to review the case, attorneys for The HSUS submitted arguments to the court explaining why those decisions should be reversed, which the high court ultimately did.

The court's decision makes it clear that Louisiana's legislature has not declared cockfighting a legal or protected activity under state law. In its decision, the court found that Louisiana state law neither approves nor prohibits cockfighting, and the state legislature's "silence cannot be construed to mean that cockfighting has thereby been authorized by the legislature." And thus "a local ordinance which prohibits cockfighting is not in conflict with any general state law authorizing the sport."

"It's an excellent decision...," Alex Washington, the former assistant parish attorney who argued the case, said in a story on the KTBS-TV web site. "I expect it to be the beginning of the end of cockfighting."

Cockfighters on Their Last Legs

Cockfighters are a dying breed. Not only do the vast majority of states ban it, but the cockfighting industry's efforts in the courts and legislatures to stem the legal tide against it have been an unmitigated failure. Cockfighters have now lost lawsuits in both Louisiana and Oklahoma challenging bans on their blood sport. In 2004, the Oklahoma Supreme Court, without dissent, affirmed the constitutionality of a 2002 ballot initiative—passed by an overwhelming majority of voters—which made cockfighting activities a felony offense.

Cockfighters have encountered resistance on the national level, too. After Congress passed amendments to the Animal Welfare Act in 2002 that prohibited the interstate commerce of birds for fighting purposes, the United Gamefowl Breeders Association—a trade group that includes criminal cockfighters—filed suit in federal court, advancing the absurd claim that the law somehow infringed upon their fundamental right to fight animals.  Last spring, the U.S. District Court for Western Louisiana unequivocally rejected that argument and threw UGBA's claims out of court. The UGBA, recognizing it was overmatched in that fight, did not even try to appeal the decision.

While the courts upheld the constitutionality of the federal anti-cockfighting law, law enforcement officials and prosecutors around the country have also discovered its limitations, namely that it calls for only misdemeanor-level penalties. But Congress is working to change that.

In April 2005, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act, S. 382, sponsored by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), which creates felony-level penalties for illegal dogfighting and cockfighting activities and bans the interstate and foreign commerce in cockfighting implements. The House bill, H.R. 817, sponsored by Rep. Mark Green (R-WI), is still pending committee or floor action. The legislation is endorsed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Chicken Council, American Veterinary Medical Association, and nearly 400 law enforcement agencies around the country.

Significant Local and National Consequences

Of the five largest cockfighting pits in Louisiana, two are located in Caddo Parish—Ark-La-Tex Game Club and Piney Woods Game Club. Both pits regularly draw large crowds from throughout Louisiana, neighboring states, and even Mexico and other countries. But the Louisiana Supreme Court's decision effectively sounds the death knell for these and other cockfighting pits in Caddo Parish.

The threat of avian flu has renewed efforts in Congress to crack down on cockfighting, which is implicated in the spread of the disease in Asia. "Don't be surprised," Elton Gallegly (R-CA), U.S. Representative and senior member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote for the Santa Barbara News-Press, "if the deadly avian flu enters the United States in the blood of a rooster smuggled into the country for the barbaric sport of cockfighting."

"The initial explosion of the deadly avian flu strain H5N1 in early 2004 leading to the deaths of over 100 million chickens across eight countries in Southeast Asia was traced to the trade in live birds for commerce," said Michael Greger, M.D., HSUS director of public health and animal agriculture. "The riskiest segment of trade may be in fighting cocks, who are transported long distances throughout countries and between countries—even by plane—to participate in the high-stakes betting blood sport."

For Caddo Parish, the supreme court's ruling signals the beginning of the end for this cruel blood sport with a demonstrated history of encouraging crime and spreading deadly diseases. And other parishes, encouraged by the court's decision, may soon follow Caddo Parish's lead and protect animals from the stress, injuries, and frequent deaths caused by being forced to fight.

Peter Brandt is a Litigation Fellow with the Animal Protection Litigation section of The HSUS. 

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Federal Animal Fighting Legislation

Louisiana Cockfighting