U.S. Cockfighters Defy Laws, Seek to De-Criminalize Blood Sports

ANIMAL WATCH - Cockfighting is illegal in every state in the USA, although individual laws exist in each state as to the penalty. The final state in the country to make cockfighting illegal was Louisiana, where the practice of this blood sport was banned in 2007 (effective Aug. 2008).

Cockfighting is also outlawed in Washington, DC, and illegal under federal law in the U.S. and all U.S. territories The 1966 Animal Welfare Act made it a federal crime to conduct staged animal fights, and the 2014 Farm Bill made it a crime to attend or bring an underaged child to such events.

However, in a media release last week by Animal Wellness Action (AWA), the Washington, DC, based animal-welfare organization claimed that “an effort to decriminalize cockfighting is currently underway in Arkansas.”

And, with that, is the unspoken fear also that America’s humane laws could begin to crumble, spurred also by the numerous off-shore cockfighting sites which engender addictive on-line gambling on by adults and minors.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Animal Wellness Action detailed results of an investigation the organization conducted over several months. Founder Wayne Pacelle told reporters investigators uncovered evidence that State Sen. Terry Rice (R-Waldron) and state Rep. Justin Gonzales (R- Okolona) intend to introduce legislation to weaken criminal penalties for cockfighting in 2025.

“Every Arkansan should be outraged that any legislator would consider decriminalizing cockfighting in Arkansas,” said Desiree Bender, Animal Wellness Action state director of Arkansas.

The Arkansas Times reports it “reached out to both Gonzales and Rice for comment and was unable to immediately reach Gonzales." Rice told reporters that “he has not filed any bills and will not until he returns to his legislative work on Dec. 15 after recovering from surgery.” He also said he “hasn’t seen” any bill such as the one described by Animal Wellness Action (AWA).

Animal Wellness Action also alleged that lobbyist Suzanna Watt of Anchor Strategies has been reportedly hired “to help shepherd the legislation through when lawmakers convene at the state Capitol in January.”

Watt has confirmed that she has been “hired by the Arkansas Gamefowl Commission,” according to the report—an organization started by John Slavin of Waldron, whom AWA alleges is an internationally renowned cockfighter.

Animal Wellness Action referred to an interview that Slavin did with Filipino media in which he described that “roosters he breeds hit so hard, and they cut good and they’re game, and that wins you a lot of chicken fights.”

AWA said the information published in its investigation is based on “a leaked recording of a meeting between Watt and two Oklahomans, Anthony Devore and Blake Pearce, who run the national United States Gamefowl Commission.” The men call themselves “breeders” and advocate for weaker animal fighting laws in Oklahoma and elsewhere. Animal Wellness Action states it also collected evidence from social media accounts, drone video footage, interviews and numerous other sources.

You can read their full report on illegal cockfighting in Arkansas here: Cockfighting-in-Arkansas.

The group also claimed that, in the leaked discussion, a woman allegedly identified as Watt stated, “The problem is that the current law lumps responsible breeders together with people who do things, you know, who do things that can be perceived as the reason that they have these laws so harsh.”

Then the same woman’s voice continued, “So in that regard, one of the things that we can do to move this forward is to not talk about certain aspects. What these birds could potentially be used for, other than raising them, selling them and things like that.”

Pacelle claims that “because Devore and Pearce have been unsuccessful in weakening animal fighting laws in their native Oklahoma, they have turned to Arkansas as the potential national hub of cockfighting.”

“Arkansas has historically been in the center of cockfighting and dog fighting,” he stated.

No bill to decriminalize cockfighting had been filed as of Wednesday, the report states; however, “Should one be submitted and passed, the animal advocates say “it would gut Act 33, passed by the Legislature under Gov. Mike Beebe in 2009, making malicious animal cruelty such as cockfighting and dog fighting a felony.”

THE FIGHT ACT

The goal of AWA, according to Pacelle, is to pass the bipartisan FIGHT Act in Congress to shut down ALL animal fighting rings.

The FIGHT Act, sponsored by Arkansas Congressman Rick Crawford, along with Sen. John Kennedy (R- Louisiana), Sen. Cory Booker (D- New Jersey) and others would:

(1) prohibit internet gambling on animal fights,

(2) allow citizens to sue cockfighting operations, and

(3) prevent smugglers from shipping roosters internationally.

Pacelle emphasized that cockfighting (and dog-fighting) operations are hubs for various other illegal activities including drug and arms trafficking, and that major law enforcement agencies are behind this effort to strengthen federal law cracking down on all animal fighting.

THE FIGHT ACT WOULD ALLOW PRIVATE CITIZENS TO BRING ACTION AGAINST ANYONE INVOLVED IN ANIMAL FIGHTING.

“We have strong prohibitions against animal fighting and associated acts in federal law, but they are not being used as weapons to shut down animal fighting,” Pacelle emphasizes, “Adding a private right of action in federal law, in cases where law enforcement won’t bring criminal charges against known animal fighters, is a test of whether we are serious as a nation about dismantling dogfighting and cockfighting syndicates.”

COCKFIGHTING AND DOG FIGHTING BANS – ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION “FIGHTS” TO KEEP THEM AS LAW

“We don’t encourage any illegal activities,” United Gamefowl Breeders Association (UGBA) public relations manager Bucky Harless told writer B. David Zarley, in a 2015 interview for Vice magazine, “On the Edge of the Pit: Cockfighting in America. “We believe that the laws against cocking (cock fighting) are unconstitutional, and we’re for any laws that would lessen the penalties for that or do away with the penalties for that, and we’re against any legislation that would increase the penalties for that.”

“The UGBA is the cocker’s push back. Like their birds, rather than slink away, forced to carry out their hobby in the shadows forever, they have chosen to get organized and fight,” Zarley wrote.

“Harless sees in the blanket banning of cockfighting, a grand hypocrisy-- a traditional bloodsport being handled with a hostility not placed on others. “

He added “In cocking, both birds are equally matched, as far as weapons, weight, and age, and both are equally willing to engage in the battle … there are rules in place, that when a rooster refuses to fight, they end the battle, so he’s not continuously harassed and chased around by the rooster that’s willing to fight the battle.”

What he fails to mention is that the roosters don’t have a choice and the reason game roosters are kept alive, if possible, even after serious injury and suffering, is in order to be bred and perpetuate the blood line and the money it garners in sales of its offspring—a far less humane and admirable purpose than “saving” the bird.

ANIMAL WELLNESS ACTION (AWA) SPEAKS FOR THE VICTIMS

“Cockfighters in Arkansas should be grateful that they haven’t been arrested for their serial violations of federal and state laws against staged animal fighting,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy, “Yet, they have the gall now to petition state lawmakers to gut penalties for their violent crimes.”

“We will work hard to have this boomerang against them, with no weakening of the state’s strong anti-cockfighting statute but with multiple arrest warrants triggered by their blatant contempt for the law.”

Harless contends, “Opposition to cocking (the cockfighters’ term for cockfighting) stems in no small part from the vast demographic and economic shifts of the country. Whereas the average American was once more likely to either live an agrarian lifestyle, or know someone who has, decades of urbanization have irrevocably altered our relationship with animals,” Zarley wrote.

He also surmised, “Besides the urbanization factor—our disassociation with animals has arguably imbued a new sympathy for them—the opposition to cockfighting also comes from the belief that the sport is both cruel and a magnet for the criminal element, particularly gamblers and those attracted to the money said gamblers have.”

Zarley also wrote,“United Gamefowl Breeders Association (UGBA) public relations manager Bucky Harless told me over the phone, ”“We believe that the laws against cocking are unconstitutional, and we’re for any laws that would lessen the penalties for that or do away with the penalties for that, and we’re against any legislation that would increase the penalties for that.”

“We do not encourage any of our members, or anyone, to break the law; our idea is that you change the law, you don’t break it,” he said.

So it seems Wayne Pacelle, of Animal Wellness Awareness and Center for a Humane Economy, is right about the cockfighters’ goal.

America is going to have to soon decide if some living beings without choice should fight and bleed to death for human entertainment and gambling, or that humaneness--and laws that enforce it--apply to all.

And, the world will be watching.