They Want To Take Away Everything That Is "New Mexico"!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Cockfighting Ban Backed by Governor

By Russell Max Simon
Journal Northern Bureau
SANTA FE— Gov. Bill Richardson announced Wednesday that after years of not taking a position on the issue he will support passage of a statewide ban on cockfighting during the 2007 legislative session.
"The time has come to make it happen," Richardson said at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter. "The people of New Mexico want it to happen, and not only will I support a ban, but I will actively try to make it law."
For more than a decade, legislators have battled over whether to ban cockfighting in New Mexico. Opponents of the sport call it barbaric and cruel, while supporters defend it as a crucial part of New Mexico culture and a constitutional right.
New Mexico and Louisiana are the only states where cockfighting remains legal.
Richardson has, until now, stayed out of the fray, and several bills to enact a statewide ban have died at the Roundhouse.
With Richardson's support, state Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana, said she hopes a ban will pass in 2007.
"It's a gruesome, barbaric sport, and then they try to convince me it's a cultural sport. I don't think so," Garcia told Wednesday's news conference.
State Rep. Peter Wirth, D-Santa Fe, said Wednesday that he also will introduce anti-cockfighting legislation next year.
Thirteen of New Mexico's 33 counties and 29 municipalities have already enacted bans.
"I'm really pleased with the governor's announcement," Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chávez said in a written statement. "If successful, this means New Mexico won't be the last state in the union to ban this barbaric practice."
But state Sen. Phil Griego, D-San Jose, said banning cockfighting could set New Mexico on a slippery slope toward eliminating other treasured events.
"You start doing away with cockfighting, then you open the door and they're going to start doing away with rodeos. And when you do away with rodeos, they're going to start doing away with hunting and fishing," Griego said.
"It's a way for these liberals to kick in the door and do away with everything we've ever been accustomed to for over 300 years here in the West."
That New Mexico still permits cockfighting has been the subject of barbs from Jay Leno and criticism from national animal rights activists. It also has drawn questions about Richardson's position from the Washington press corps.
Still, Griego said he didn't believe Richardson's decision to come out against cockfighting was timed to deal with a political liability should the governor, as expected, announce that he intends to run for president in 2008.
"I don't look at it as him trying to get a step up in the political world," Griego said. "I see it as him concerned about an issue that's going to come before the Legislature."
Richardson said the timing of the announcement was the result of having taken care of other pressing issues in past legislative sessions.
"The problem in the past was I wanted us to deal with so many of the other pressing issues, like creating jobs, improving schools, access to health care," he said. "Now that we've made progress in all of those areas, and because the people of New Mexico overwhelmingly want a ban, I believe that as the governor I should throw my support behind a cockfighting ban."
A 2004 Journal poll found that two-thirds of state voters would support a law banning cockfighting. Only 23 percent of registered voters polled statewide said they would oppose such a law, while 11 percent said they were undecided.
"The governor, up to now, has avoided taking a firm stand on the cockfighting issue," said Brian Sanderoff, president of Research and Polling Inc. in Albuquerque and the Journal's pollster. "A small but vocal group of New Mexicans has strongly opposed any legislation to ban cockfighting. But as the governor ponders a run for the White House, it might prove to be politically embarrassing for him to not take a strong stance against cockfighting."
Al Lavallee, the manager of a cockfighting pit in Hobbs, said a ban would likely just drive cockfighting underground.
"We'll fight it, of course, in whatever is available to us," Lavallee said. "But essentially, most of us, to be honest about it, will keep raising our flocks and go on with it."
Lavallee said people who raise roosters to fight have their "weapons of choice," be it razor blades, hooks, or other tools that are attached to the fighting birds' legs, and he acknowledged it's a brutal sport. But he said roosters are naturally disposed toward fighting.
"If you take a rooster and without any training or indoctrination of any sort, and you starve him for a week, and you let him out with a rooster and a hen and a pile of food in front of him, he's going to kill that rooster, (mate with) that hen, and eat that food. It's just the nature of the animal," Lavallee said.
Griego said cruelty to animals is in the eye of the beholder.
"Some view professional football as cruelty to mankind. It's just something you've got to deal with. It's all in how you view it," he said.
As part of a package of animal protection legislation, Richardson also said he will propose funding for creation of a state animal welfare board, animal shelter improvements, spay and neuter programs, creation of sanctuaries for old and neglected horses and other measures.

Now we'll have to go to Juarez to see a good cockfight! The lost tourist dollers will be in the billions! (pesos)