Senate cockfighting battle expected
to be bloody

WASHINGTON -- A fowl battle is brewing in the nation's capital.
A Senate bill that would leash cockfighting by making it illegal to transport game fowl across state lines could turn into one of the more heated debates Congress will see when it returns in January.
The fight between game breeders and animal rights activists already has turned ugly in Oklahoma, one of only three states where the sport is legal. The federal legislation would effectively fence in cockfighting in that state, Louisiana and New Mexico.
Cockfighting has been illegal in Nevada since 1919, but until recently its fans could find the activity just 90 northeast of Las Vegas at a pit in Beaver Dam, Ariz. Voters in Arizona banned the sport in a state referendum in 1998.
In Washington, two former senators have been enlisted to lobby for the sport, and money is being raised for its defense. On the other side, professional wrestler Bill Goldberg is speaking out against cockfighting.
When Congress returns, the Senate Agriculture Committee is expected to review a bill that would ban the transport of live birds across state lines to participate in cockfights.
Although cockfighting is illegal in most states, there are no laws prohibiting farmers from raising game fowl. In fact, the bill's opponents say banning the interstate transport of these birds could harm a million-dollar industry with a legacy dating to ancient Greece.
The bill, introduced early in 1999 by Sen. Wayne Allard, D-Colo., would tighten the noose around game fowl farms, although there are no firm figures on how many there are. The United Gamefowl Breeders Association claims about 30,000 members nationwide.
Allard said the legislation will give law enforcement more control over a violent sport that has become a magnet for illegal betting and other crimes.
"There's a lot of money that's raised in illegal activity in the United States," said Allard, a former veterinarian. "Just because drug dealers would lose a lot of money doesn't mean we would keep from passing anti-drug legislation."
Two game fowl groups have banded to fight the bill. The Oklahoma Animal Coalition has teamed with the American Animal Husbandry Association to hire Steve Symms, a Republican and former Idaho senator, to fight Allard's bill. The coalition also has hired J. Bennett Johnston, a former Democratic senator from Louisiana.
"We felt like we needed a weapon," said Bobby Jones, fund-raising chairman for the association, which has started its own political action committee to solicit contributions.
Jones, a Texas game fowl farmer who raises about 700 fighting birds a year, acknowledges that cockfighting is not easy to defend. It may not be pretty, but it's a part of the rural lifestyle, he contends.
That's why the group's lobbyists have shifted the debate from the sport itself to the effect Allard's bill could have on a rural economy that supports breeders and suppliers.
"I'm not going to defend cockfighting, " Jones said "Any politician who stands up and supports cockfighting would be facing political suicide."
The opposition caught Allard and his supporters off guard.
"Never in our wildest dreams did we think we'd run into this kind of opposition," said Sean Conway, Allard's spokesman. "I guess this shows how seriously they're taking this."
The game industry already is fighting off critics in the three states where cockfighting is legal. Currently, the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, a group of animal rights activists, concerned citizens and law enforcement officials, is pushing to get a proposal on the ballot next year to make the sport a crime.
One of the more surprising actors to appear in the drama has been Goldberg, who is building a reputation as an animal rights activist. In a recent letter, the World Championship Wrestling star urged Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating to ban the sport.
"Cockfighting is nothing less than animal cruelty," wrote Goldberg, who is from Tulsa. "Oklahoma should be known as a great place to raise a family or to grow a business, not as a last refuge for people to engage in legalized cockfights."
The Oklahoma battle has turned nasty, with both sides hurling accusations of misinformation, harassment and intimidation. The anti-cockfighters have accused opponents of harassing and intimidating its volunteers.
In turn, the Oklahoma Animal Coalition, a group of breeders and others involved in animal commerce, has accused its opponents of being agents for the Humane Society and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, pushing an anti-human agenda.
"This is a Humane Society attempt to eventually ban all animal commerce and ownership," said Chuck Berry, president of the coalition. "This is just a cruel hate campaign."
Humane Society officials say they view Berry's contempt as a badge of honor. Wayne Pacelle, the group's senior vice president, blasted Symms and Johnston for aligning themselves with cockfighting.
"I think it's unconscionable for any lobbyist to try and defend something as cruel and barbaric as cockfighting," Pacelle said. "That would seem like the biggest disgrace."
Repeated phone calls to Symms and Johnston were not returned.
Berry estimates the game industry in Oklahoma raises nearly $100 million a year through the sale of fowl, grain, chicken wire and materials to build fighting pits. The figures are difficult to confirm because no government agency keeps track of the sport's economics.
Most of the 500 or so farms that operate in Oklahoma are family owned and have relied on raising fowl as their primary income for generations, according to the United Gamefowl Breeders Association. Jones estimates about 50 cockfighting pits operate in the state.
About the same number of breeders operate in Arkansas, although they must ship their fighters to other states, or more likely, outside the United States.
Most of the income generated by game fowl farmers comes from countries where the sport is legal, such as Mexico and the Philippines. Despite claims otherwise from farmers, Allard says his bill will only restrict transport within the United States.
"They're fixing to hurt a lot of folks here and all over," Gerald Nix, a Pine Bluff, Ark., farmer who is state director of the breeders association, said of the Allard legislation. "You've got a bunch of people who rely on this as their livelihood."