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 News from Around the Americas | July 2007 
In New Mexico, Cockfighters File Lawsuit Over Ban
 The Associated Press
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| | A sign in a cock weigh-in booth reads: "Pride and Dignity: Take them in with pride, win or lose, take them out with dignity." (Paul Fraughton/The Salt Lake Tribune) |
Lovington, N.M. — The New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association and six businessmen are challenging a new state law that makes it illegal to fight roosters in New Mexico.
The lawsuit, filed Thursday in state district court in Lea County, argues that the ban violates rights protected under the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and made New Mexico a U.S. territory. It also argues that lawmakers failed to follow constitutionally required procedures when passing the ban.
The 19-page lawsuit asks the court to declare the cockfighting ban void and issue an injunction against its enforcement.
The ban took effect June 15.
"There's a lot of people upset," Ronald Barron, president of the New Mexico Game Fowl Breeders Association, said this week. "It's affecting their businesses, their livelihood."
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.
The lawsuit contends the ban prohibits people from participating in a culturally important sport; costs income and destroys businesses; destroys lifestyles and recreational activities; and has a chilling effect on people who fear arrest and confiscation of their birds and equipment by police who can't distinguish between birds kept for fighting and those kept for other reasons.
It also says the ban will drive cockfighting underground, and that those fighters — "not members of the NMGA or other plaintiffs" — won't take the same precautions against poultry diseases.
Barron has said many cockfighters are law-abiding citizens and that 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.
Joining the lawsuit against the state, Gov. Bill Richardson, Attorney General Gary King and state Police Chief Faron Segotta are Charles Kent Bullock of Bullock's Feed in Artesia, Don Spearman of Animal Nutrition and Supply in Carlsbad, Tony T. Ortega of Mesilla Valley Feeds in Las Cruces, and Jal businessmen — Johnny Unias Montoya of Johnny's Service Station, Raul Trevino of Lewallen Supply and Pradip D. Bhakata of the Hilltop Inn.
Spokesmen for state officials did not immediately return calls Friday seeking comment.
The lawsuit says many of the association's 2,000 members, approximately 95 percent of whom are Hispanic, "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."
Opponents had pushed for more than two decades to ban cockfighting, but the effort picked up steam earlier this year with first-ever endorsements from Gov. Bill Richardson and the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Several New Mexico counties already banned the bloodsport before the statewide law was passed in March.
Supporters of the ban, including animal-rights activists, argue that cockfighting is cruel and should have been outlawed long ago.
The lawsuit accuses lawmakers of failing to follow procedures outlined in the state constitution, which requires bills to be read three times in each house, the third time in full. However, the Legislature routinely uses a procedure intended to satisfy that requirement without actually having entire bills read aloud.
Boise, Idaho, attorney Mark Pollot, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the section covering the reading of bills is intended so lawmakers know the actual language of the bills they enact.
The lawsuit also argues that the ban violates rights preserved under the 1848 treaty with Mexico.
The lawsuit contends the treaty guarantees civil, political and religious rights, privileges and immunities to the people of New Mexico. Over the years, cockfighters have said the practice is a tradition that dates back generations.
In response to a similar claim in 2003, the attorney general's office wrote in an advisory letter to a state lawmaker that the treaty didn't mention cockfighting and it wasn't a right protected by the treaty. |
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