Dual Victories: South Carolina and Louisiana Move Forward on Animal Fighting |
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May 26, 2006
By Ariana Huemer
Animals in Louisiana have a lot to crow about after the state Senate overwhelmingly voted to ban cockfighting. The 30-4 historic vote on May 23 followed years of lobbying by humane advocates to end Louisiana's dubious status as one of only two holdouts in the United States still permitting it.
The Senate victory is substantial because it marks the first time that the Louisiana legislature has allowed a proposed cockfighting ban to move forward. Historically, the bills have been killed in both houses before moving out of committee.
Tired of Ridicule?
It is hard to imagine that any legislator would want his state to be known as one of the last havens in the United States for cockfighting—a bloodsport so cruel and crude that it has been the butt of jokes for late-night talk show hosts and has generated countless editorials in local papers calling for its demise.
Perhaps this derision has finally budged Louisiana's legislators to recognize that pitting animals against each other in duels to the death for the amusement of spectators is a disgrace to their state. Animal fighting also begets other forms of crime, from illegal narcotics deals to firearms sales and sometimes even homicide.
Dangerous to Birds and Bubbas
The fighting birds are bred to be so aggressive that even if they are rescued during law enforcement raids, they are almost always euthanized because of the difficulty of placing them in new homes. Even cockfighters themselves have met their demise after being slashed by an angry rooster wielding a gaff—a razor-sharp knife that cockfighters strap to the birds' legs to increase the bloodshed during fights.
This danger and depravity led to the abolition of cockfighting in 48 states long ago. During Tuesday's Senate hearing, it also led Louisiana Sen. Tom Schedler (R-Mandeville) to declare in response to economic arguments from the cockfighting industry, "For God's sakes...let's don't build the economy of the state of Louisiana on cockfighting."
Schedler's sentiment is reflected by the majority of Louisianans, 82 percent of whom favor a statewide ban, and it is summarized by a recent Times Picayune editorial that concluded, "This pastime is unhealthy for the state's reputation, and lawmakers ought to seize this opportunity to ban it."
Members of the Louisiana House should keep this in mind as they take up S.B. 652 for consideration in coming weeks.
South Carolina Gets Serious About Cockfighting
Louisiana isn't the only southern state clamping down on cockfighting. In South Carolina, which banned cockfighting in 1887, members of the House passed a bill boosting the penalties for cockfighting, making the third offense a felony. The bill now goes to the Senate for concurrence. If it passes there, South Carolina will join 32 other states that have already enacted felony-level penalties for cockfighting.
The South Carolina bill, if passed, would go a long way toward ridding the state of cockfighting corruption, which persists despite its illegality because those convicted face misdemeanor penalties that usually amount to a $100 fine or probation. For hard-core cockfighters who stand to make thousands of dollars in a night at the cockfights, such paltry penalties are easily written off as the cost of doing business.
A Sleazy, Illegal Business
With more and more states making cockfighting crimes a felony, South Carolina's continued soft stance has created an unsavory situation in which illegal cockfighters from neighboring states flock to South Carolina. This was underscored less than a year ago after a huge cockfighting bust in Florence, in which more than 60 people—many of them from out of state—were taken into custody alongside large amounts of illegal drugs. Of the spectacle, Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker was quoted as saying, "It's very trashy, very nasty and bloody. It's very unsanitary, very depressing when you see all those dead chickens lying on the ground."
This high-profile bust, coupled with the imprisonment of South Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Charles Sharpe after a conviction of extortion and money laundering for taking payoffs to protect South Carolina cockfighters, has made it abundantly clear that an overhaul of South Carolina's laws is long overdue.
Ariana Huemer is the animal cruelty caseworker for The Humane Society of the United States.
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Louisiana Cockfighting
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Cockfighting Fact Sheet
