WASHINGTON - The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
applauded today's decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court to
allow a ballot initiative advanced by the people of the state
to appear on a future ballot as State Question 687.
In rendering its decision, the Court validated the
signatures of 90,748 Oklahoma voters submitted in support of
the petition, in excess of the 69,887 needed for qualification
of a statutory measure. The Court also rejected arguments from
the cockfighting lobby that the proposal is
unconstitutional.
"Despite the cockfighters spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars in a doomed attempt to invalidate legally gathered
signatures, the Oklahoma Supreme Court determined that the
anti-cockfighting ballot initiative meets all requirements for
placement on the statewide ballot," stated Wayne Pacelle, a
senior vice president of The HSUS. "The cockfighters know that
the voters strongly favor a ban on this cruel and barbaric
activity and they have made desperate efforts to keep the issue
away from the people."
Cockfighting was outlawed in Oklahoma until 1963, when a
state court ruled that the anti-animal fighting law did not
cover chickens.
The Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, an alliance of
local and national animal protection, law enforcement and civic
organizations, including The Humane Society of the United
States and The Fund for Animals, submitted 99,750 signatures in
December 1999, in support of a petition to make cockfighting
illegal. Cockfighters sued to block placement of the measure on
the ballot, and the petition has been tied up in the courts
until today's unanimous Supreme Court ruling.
The ballot initiative outlaws instigating or participating
in cockfights; being a spectator at a cockfight; possessing or
training birds for fighting; or maintaining facilities for
cockfighting. The measure specifically exempts hunting or
agricultural production of birds.
Cockfighters rear and train birds for aggressive
characteristics, dose them with stimulants and blood-clotting
drugs, affix knives or ice-pick-like gaffs to their legs, and
place them in a pit to fight. Birds suffer gouged eyes,
punctured lungs, and other grievous wounds. Cockfights
frequently involve gambling and illegal drug use.
There are 47 states that have outlawed cockfighting, and it
is a felony in 26 states. The U.S. House of Representatives
passed an amendment to H.R. 2646, the Farm Security Act, on
October 4, 2001, to ban any interstate shipment or export of
fighting birds. The U.S. Senate is expected to act on this
measure soon.
