New Mexico bans cockfighting on cruelty grounds

[Moloch]

SANTA FE, New Mexico (Reuters) - New Mexico outlawed cockfighting on Monday in a victory for animal welfare groups, leaving Louisiana as the last state in the country where the controversial practice is legal.

"I am proud that New Mexico will now move beyond cockfighting and join the 48 states that have already banned this outdated practice," said Gov. Bill Richardson after signing the bill.

Cockfighting involves roosters with razors tied to their claws battling often to the death with spectators placing bets on the outcome of each contest.

Supporters argued cockfighting was an Hispanic tradition and that any ban would push it underground. Opponents said it was a clear-cut case of animal cruelty and that it encouraged illegal gambling.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=2007-03-12T210933Z_01_N12372033_RTRUKOC_0_US-USA-COCKFIGHTING-BAN.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

[DRoseDARs]

1. There was a thread on this some months ago; was wondering how the legislation had progressed since.

:thumbsup:

eom

[Gloria]

2. It's pretty watered down in terms of penalities, though....

Mary Jane Garcia has been pushing this bill for years.....at least she got something, finally.

[WindRavenX]

3. fantastic

:thumbsup:

[Name removed]

4. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[The Stranger]

5. K&R

[yava]

6. how to eat roosters

Animal lovers believe they feel it when taken to the slaughtet house. First their being taken away from their home, friends and family. Then stacked in trucks going through traffic and finally, they kill them in various ways in different countries following different religions. In case of birds, they are skinned, cut up into breasts, legs, wings etc, then spiced anc cooked or grilled.
Should we ban it all and go veg?
Does a cock prefer to have a fighting chance to survive or go directly to the slaughter house? Your take?

[LeftyMom]

7. 1. The birds do not have a chance at survival.

They may survive the fight, though often both birds die, but they won't keep winning for long, or will succumb to wounds, and their lives will be brutal and very short.

2. What on earth makes you think that chickens bred for meat or eggs have anything like a "home, friends and family?" They live in cages, six birds to a cage, so that each bird has less space than a standard sheet of paper. The birds with them were bought from the same breeding facility, and are only relatives in the sense that all birds used in these facilities are bred to be nearly identical.

Neither sport nor slaughter has the moral high ground. Both subject individual animals to needless painful surgeries, whether burning off beaks or adding spurs, deprive animals of medical care and ultimately kill animals capable of living a decade or so within a matter of a few horrible months of unimaginable suffering.

We shouldn't have to ban either. We should choose to live in a way that does not condone torture of animals. That a ban was ever needed shows what moral failures we are as a species.

[President Kerry]

12. thank you.. this is a fine post making an important point.

[RedCloud]

11. No part of the fowl goes to "waste"

Other parts and fluids are put into animal food formulas.

It is absolute annihilation by one species over another. Space aliens take note.

[flvegan]

8. Fantastic news!

K&R.

[Moloch]

9. kick

[pushycat]

10. It is only the 21st Century. About time NM stopped this. sheesh

[catgirl]

13. Finally!

Why does it take so damn long for these things to finally gets passed?
Animal fighting is horribly abusive, but it's also run by thugs. Nothing
good comes out of it. The animals are smarter than the abusers.