by Richard "Bugman" Fagerlund
Daily Lobo Columnist
Cockfighting in New Mexico is alive and well.
Cockfighting died in committee so we are stuck with this so-called sport for another year at least unless a miracle happens. Five members of the senate committee decided that animal cruelty in New Mexico is alive and well and we should continue it because it is a "tradition." I am surprised that one of these five so-called "representatives of the people" didn't introduce a bill to legalize dog fighting. Then we could have two species to torture in the name of "tradition." Maybe we can bring bullfighting to the State Fair this year.
If you aren't familiar with cockfighting, two roosters are fitted with three-inch long ice pick-like knives or hooked gaffs. They are put into a pit where they will fight until one or both of them are severely injured or dead. The gaffs inflict deep puncture wounds, eyes are gouged out and legs and wings are often broken. The birds are drugged before the match with stimulants such as strychnine or methamphetamines so they can fight without feeling the pain they are in. If they falter during the fight, the handlers pick them up and blow in their faces to revive them.
According to an investigator for The Humane Society of the United States, "Even if one bird is half dead, the handlers don't stop the fight. The bird may be bleeding, stunned, and wounded, but he will be kept fighting, even if he can only lie there in fear and terror while the other bird keeps attacking him."
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The match isn't over until one bird is unable to continue, even with prodding, or is dead. Survivors whose eyes are gouged out, or are slashed or blinded are pitted together in "blinker derbies," where they are forced to continue to fight until only one bird is barely still alive. All the time the spectators are betting on the outcome. At the end of the night, all the losing birds are thrown on a "dead" pile, even though some of them aren't quite dead. One person told me of a handler stomping his rooster to death because he lost the fight (and apparently some of his handler's money).
When I wrote a column about this subject several weeks ago in the Albuquerque Journal, I heard from a number of cockfighters. One told me he didn't like dog fights because they were cruel. When I asked him the difference, he said that dogs were animals, but roosters were just chickens. Apparently, chickens don't feel any pain. Another fellow wrote and told me that they invented chickens a couple of thousand years ago so they could fight. So much for the theory of evolution. And one fellow told me that George Washington was a cockfighter because he attended a cockfight. I went to a football game once, but I guarantee you that I am not a quarterback.
Finally, another fellow told me they put knives and gaffs on the roosters because it is more humane. He said that if they fight with their natural spurs they could get an infection. He was serious.
There is the contention that cockfighting is conducive to gambling and drug use. I am not of the illusion that eliminating cockfighting will eliminate drug use or gambling. If we eliminate all activities where drugs are used or illegal gambling takes place, there wouldn't be anything to do. Football, baseball, basketball, boxing and almost all other sports have their share of gambling and drug use. My focus on eliminating cockfighting is based solely on the cruelty to the birds.
Almost all of the reasons I heard for keeping cockfighting legal are as completely and totally vacuous as the ones I mentioned. Apparently Manny Aragon and his cohorts in the senate committee bought that nonsense. So much for representing the 81 percent of the people who abhor this activity.
Only in New Mexico (and Louisiana) can animal cruelty and sport be synonymous.
I am working on a book about cockfighting, dog fighting, fox hunting, clubbing baby seals, rattlesnake roundups and some of our other so-called sports and activities. I will be writing about some of these other fun things people do to animals in future columns. I would welcome any comments on any of these or similar activities, either pro or con.
Richard Fagerlund can be reached at fagerlun@unm.edu.
