United Poultry Concerns Cockfighting
Letter & Article: Cockfight Violence: A Clash of Culture
Hartford Courant
Letter to the Editor
7/20/02

No Reasonable Defense For Cockfighting

http://www.ctnow.com/news/opinion/letters/hc-lets0720.artjul20.story?coll=hc%2Dheadlines%2Dletters

"Cockfight Violence: A Clash Of Cultures" [Page 1, July 14] perpetuates an offensive myth: that efforts to end the barbaric practice of cockfighting represent a clash of cultures with Hispanic Americans.

Cockfighting is among the most egregious forms of animal cruelty, and the overwhelming majority of Americans - regardless of culture, ethnicity or race - condemn this abhorrent activity.

In Arizona, just prior to voters overwhelming approving a ballot initiative to make cockfighting a felony, a statewide poll revealed that 90 percent of Hispanics viewed cockfighting as "cruel and inhumane" - registering a higher negative opinion of cockfighting than Anglos, whose opposition stood at 88 percent. The survey also found that the great majority of Hispanics disagreed that cockfighting is an important part of Hispanic culture.

In New Mexico, one of only three states where cockfighting remains legal, state Sen. Nancy Rodriguez, a Mexican American, has led efforts to abolish these events with the enthusiastic support of many other Hispanic legislators.

It's easy to understand why. Cockfighting is a barbaric practice in which birds are drugged with stimulants and blood-clotting factors, fitted with razor-sharp knives or ice-pick-like gaffs on their legs, and placed in a pit to hack each other to death for amusement and gambling. Wounds suffered by the birds commonly include punctured lungs, gouged eyes, broken bones and other grievous injuries. Even the winners sometimes die from their injuries.

Cockfighting, like bullfighting or dogfighting, is wrong wherever it occurs. Culture and ethnicity provide no reasonable defense.

Wayne Pacelle

Senior Vice President

The Humane Society of the United States

Washington, D.C.


The Hartford Courant
Front page
7/14/02

Cockfight Violence: A Clash Of Cultures
In Puerto Rico, A Tradition Since Spanish Arrived


July 14, 2002
By MATTHEW HAY BROWN, Courant Staff Writer

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Jose Roberto Fiejoo remembers it as a highlight of his rural childhood. On weekends, he would follow his father to a barn near their central mountain hometown of Ciales to watch fighting birds bite and claw at each other.

Now a labor attorney in San Juan, Fiejoo brings his young son to the Club Gallistico de Puerto Rico, an air-conditioned, brightly lit gallera on the capital's premier tourist strip. There they enter a few of their 200 roosters each week in bloody battles that often end in death.

Full story: http://www.ctnow.com/hc-cockfight0714.artjul14.story

United Poultry Concerns, Inc.
PO Box 150
Machipongo, VA 23405-0150
757-678-7875
FAX: 757-678-5070
www.upc-online.org

(Cockfighting: Letter & Article: Cockfight Violence: A Clash of Culture - July 20, 2002)

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