Authorities Raid Cockfight Saturday, Make Arrests Under New Law

[Annces]

December 22, 2007


Four arrested, about 100 birds removed from N.M. properties

CHAPARRAL, N.M.—Otero County Sheriff's Department and the Attorney General's Animal Cruelty Task Force, with assistance from Animal Protection of New Mexico and The Humane Society of the United States, raided the Otero Game Club's "Christmas Derby" cockfighting event today.

Several people attending the cockfighting event fled just before law enforcement agents arrived at the scene. Law enforcement agencies arrested four individuals. It is estimated that more than 100 birds were relinquished from two properties total.

On Wednesday, the New Mexico Fifth Judicial District Court upheld a ban on cockfighting in the state, after the New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association had questioned the constitutionality of the ban. According to New Mexico law, the first and second cockfighting convictions are misdemeanors, and the third conviction is a felony.

"Cockfighting is an utterly cruel activity and it has no place in New Mexico or anywhere else," said John Goodwin, manager of The HSUS' animal cruelty and fighting campaign, who was on-scene Saturday.

Multiple law enforcement and animal control agencies, including those from Doña Ana County and the City of Albuquerque, participated.

Cockfighting Facts:

Tens of thousands of people are involved in cockfighting nationwide.
Law enforcement raids across the country have revealed that cockfights, which are frequently attended by children, often involve gambling and, as a result of the large amounts of cash present, firearms and other weapons.
Law enforcement officials have documented a strong connection between cockfighting and the distribution of illegal drugs.

http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases

Yay for Humane Society. They help those who cannot speak or lobby for themselves.

[joeybee12]

1. Good news...gotta ask, though, how can supporters of cockfighting

possibly say the ban is unconstitutional? How???

[-..__...]

12. The're claiming it violates a treaty...

and that cock fighting is part of their cultural heritage...

" Cockfighters File Lawsuit Over N.M. Ban
A new state law against fighting roosters violates a treaty that ended the Mexican-American War, a cockfighting association claims in a lawsuit.
The New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association and six businessmen argued that the law infringes on rights protected under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which made New Mexico a U.S. territory.
The lawsuit contends the treaty guarantees civil, political and religious rights, privileges and immunities to the people of New Mexico.
Many of the association's 2,000 members "are devoted to rural lifestyles, of which gamefowl breeding and-or participating in gamefowl shows and fights are, in New Mexico, long-standing, culturally bound and significant activities," the lawsuit said."

http://www.sabong.net.ph/forum/showthread.php?t=25936

[SteppingRazor]

2. Dammit, it's getting so that a guy has to leave the country to see a good cockfight.

:popcorn:

[RB TexLa]

7. You really believe that?

[SteppingRazor]

11. Nah, I don't believe that for a second. I live in South Florida. If I wanted to see a cockfight...

I'd just head into Miami.

Of course, I wouldn't really want to, what with it being morally repugnant and all. ... the cockfighting, not Miami. Although, when you get down to it, Miami's pretty morally reprehensible too. But in a good way, for the most part.

[flvegan]

3. Blah blah...culture...blah blah

Just wanted to get that out of the way.

Good to see the officials enforcing the laws on this.

HSUS has been on the forefront of the issue of fighting animals for a long time. Yay for them, indeed. :thumbsup:

[Annces]

10. It is good

Especially in a southern state. I hope someone day the Humane Society is in charge of managing wildlife, not the money-grubbing hunters lobby and DNR.

[madokie]

4. cockfighting was a blight on our landscape for way too long here in Oklahoma

They're kinda trying to get a handle on it though. being of the weak stomach type I've never witnessed any cockfights personally but I used to know people in the neighborhood, ie area, who did and it was as is described here as a place of everything from drugs to guns whisky and girls. Yay for the Humane Society

[Submariner]

5. A Cockfighting Arena is next door to the San Juan, PR hotel

I stay at on business trips. It is in the tourist district, and it is a legal sport that many islanders like.

And the Metropol restaurant next door to the arena, has the finest tasting smoked chickens nightly. I don't know if there is a correlation, but....

[Vanje]

8. Fighting cock breeds are not tasty

They're all hard and sinewy.

Like eating chicken flavored rubber bands

[Submariner]

14. Thanks for that info

Now I won't be wondering if I'm eating one of the 'losers' of the day. I watched some cock groomers plucking and snipping the feathers out of the underbody of the bird, and I thought they looked quite muscular, which goes with your hard and sinewy observation.

[Vanje]

6. the 100 confiscated birds

will be swiftly killed for their own protection.

[shain from kane]

9. What other purpose could they possibly serve? Bred and raised for

one purpose. Would not exist at all.

[Vanje]

22. Many people where I live breed them for exhibition,

or hobby, just because they enjoy them.
They are gorgeous ornamental birds.
The hens are very graceful and are good brooders and good mothers.

[EFerrari]

17. They can't be in cages with other birds or they try to kill each other.

It's horrible.

[Vanje]

21. They're not kept in cages.

They live under the open sky, tethered to shelters.

Well-bred cocks are very expensive.
During their typically short lives, they are well cared for.
Its not the worse life that can befall a domestic bird.

Can anyone say the same about your industrial laying hens? These live 2 to 3 in tiny boxes. They eat a mash because they've had their beaks removed so that they wont peck one another. After 2 years, their production slows and they are killed.
They die without ever seeing the sun.
Industrial meat birds have it worse. They suffer frequent leg bone breaks and breast-bone deformation from overcrowding. They suffer a high frequency of gangrene.

Yeah. I eat chicken and I eat eggs.
I grow my own.

[EFerrari]

26. I know how they are raised because I inherited about twenty of them

from the criminal who was renting a piece of land from me.

And, that animal factories are also an obscenity doesn't improve the situation of game cocks.

[Vanje]

23. The same could be said about other roosters as well.

You cant confine mature roosters together without their fighting.

[EFerrari]

27. Not like that. I had three or four rosters and while they went at it

every now and then, they largely stayed away from each other. Gamecocks do not walk away. They don't avoid each other. They start fighting and don't stop until somebody is dead.

It's really sad.

[Beelzebud]

13. The birds were then sold to KFC where they were mechanically seperated and deep fried.

Thank goodness we saved those chickens!

[Annces]

24. One cruelty at a time Bub.

[soundguy]

15. WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT COCKFIGHTING?

Have any of you ever been around any roosters? I don't see how giving food a fighting chance is any worse than mass chicken and egg farms. And please, we don't eat dogs so there is no comparison. I just don't get it. My old boss (now deceased)at one time raised fighting chickens and sold them all over the country. I have never been to a fight and he claimed he didn't fight just liked to raise them. Oddly enough, he was a kind, and just man. Not evil, crazy or even wild. Didn't drink didn't carouse. And I guarantee you those birds led a much better life than the ones down the road at the egg farm. I see dog fighting as the manifestation of an over inflated ego. where as bird fighting is different. I know I am not going to change any minds here but, the left of my party worries me. I say the cockfighting facts are b.s. what do you think goes on at any fight? Uh Betting and drinking, and the types around here that would probably attend that type of event aren't the ones robbing, raping and doing the murdering. But I am sure they are proud at their accomplishments of making more criminals out of otherwise law abiding citizens. What do you suppose will become of the birds they collected? I don't live there but I am sure the crime rate will now drop dramatically.

[EFerrari]

18. If you'd ever had to pick up the bloody dead bodies of those

beautiful birds, or better, the half dead bodies that had been left to die, you wouldn't be asking that question.

[lonestarnot]

20. Fight your own cock and them come and tell us.

:rofl: Lroflmao:

[Prefer]

16. Michael Vick again?

BTW I saw Stomp The Yard and they show dogfighting as a part of urban culture. Must have been before Michael Vick.

[lonestarnot]

19. :applause: Great job Humane Society! :applause:

:applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[tuckessee]

25. If they'd just eat the chickens after the fights that would make it OK.

Works for hunting so it should work with cock & dog fighting as well.