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 News from Around the Americas | June 2007 
New Mexico Cockfighters Brace for Ban
 Tim Korte - Associated Press
| | Jorge Prieto, from Big Spring, Texas, left, and Roy Morales, from Lubbbock, Texas flush their cockfighting roosters prior to a cockfight at Tommy's Game Fowl Farm in Hobbs, N.M., Friday, Feb. 2, 2007. When a new law takes effect Friday, June 14, 2007 it no longer will be legal to fight roosters in New Mexico. That leaves Louisiana as the only state where cockfighting is legal — though a ban is under consideration there. (AP/Jake Schoellkopf) |
Albuquerque, N.M. - Some cockfighters might take their roosters south of the border. Others are likely to go underground.
When a new law takes effect Friday, it no longer will be legal to fight roosters in New Mexico. That leaves Louisiana as the only state where cockfighting is legal — though a ban is under consideration there.
"People in this state have been fighting roosters for hundreds of years. Then all of a sudden to outlaw it, that's just not right," said Ronald Barron, president of the New Mexico Game Fowl Association.
Cockfighters plan to file a lawsuit challenging the ban, possibly as early as next week. An Idaho lawyer who is representing the New Mexico cockfighters didn't return telephone messages seeking details.
Supporters of the legislation against cockfighting include animal-rights activists and New Mexico's three Roman Catholic bishops, who say cockfighting is cruel to the animals and should have been outlawed long ago.
Several New Mexico counties already had banned the bloodsport before the statewide ban was passed by the Legislature in March.
During a cockfight, two roosters fitted with blades or gaffs on their legs are placed into a pit and fight until one is dead or badly wounded. Although gambling on the fights is illegal, spectators openly wager on the outcome.
The law makes participating in a cockfight a misdemeanor for the first two offenses and a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison for subsequent offenses.
"We are putting people on notice," Attorney General Gary King warned. "If you violate animal-protection laws, you will be prosecuted."
Barron said many cockfighters are law-abiding citizens. He predicted they'll stop attending the fights, but he also believes the law will simply force others underground.
"Yep, it's going to happen, no doubt in my mind," he said. "It happens all throughout the United States. Why should it be any different in New Mexico?"
Barron said the law unfairly hurts people who raise roosters to make a living off cockfighting, as well as those employed at feed stores and game pits.
Tommy Booth, who has operated a popular cockfighting pit north of Hobbs since 1995, said the site has shut down and won't stage fights anymore.
He predicted much of his business will shift to Texas border communities, such as Ojinaga, Mexico. But he also said cockfighters are planning to open a pit in Palomas, Mexico, which is across the border from Columbus, N.M.
"Mexico is really opening the door for us," Booth said. |
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