Category: Bloodsports

Dogs and gamecocks take their revenge

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2003:

 

For 40 years dogcatcher Manuel Pascual, 61, of Bulacan city
in Bulacan province, The Philippines, caught stray dogs and
reputedly sometimes stole freeroaming pets, selling them to
restaurants in Malolos, Marilao, Bocaue, and Baliuag, the
Philippine Inquirer reported on February 1, 2003. Eventually,
however, a dog caught Pascual, who died from rabies on January 26.
His was the second turnabout death in the Philippines in just
two weeks. On January 12 gamecock handler Elmer Mariano of Zamboanga
had just strapped spurs to the legs of a cock in preparation for a
fight when the cock wrested one leg free and fatally stabbed him in
the groin.
A similar incident occurred at Kampung Murni, Nabawan
district, Malay-sia, on January 29. According to The Star of
Malaysia, cockfighter Tungkaling Ratu had also just strapped the
spurs to a cock when the bird escaped, fatally slashing the thigh of
his 12-year-old son Henrysius, who had crowded close to the ring to
watch the fight.

Cockfighters spread Asian killer bird flu

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

BANGKOK, BEIJING–Cockfighters, cock
breeders, and public officials kow-towing to
them tried to pass the blame for spreading the
deadly H5N1 avian flu virus throughout Southeast
Asia to pigeons, sparrows, and even open-billed
storks.
Bad vaccines took some of the rap, too.
An attempt was even made, as the death
toll increased on factory farms, to attribute
the epidemic to free range poultry producers.
But as the H5N1 “red zones” expanded in
at least eight nations, the evidence pointed
ever more directly at commerce in gamecocks–and
at the efforts of cockfighters and cock breeders
to protect their birds from the culls and disease
outbreaks that had already killed more than 100
million chickens who were raised to lay eggs and
be eaten, as well as 22 people, most of them
children.
The pattern of the H5N1 outbreak
paralleled the spread of exotic Newcastle disease
through southern California and into Arizona
between November 2002 and May 2003.
Approximately 3.7 million laying hens were killed
to contain the Newcastle epidemic, but USDA
investigators believe it began among backyard
fighting bird flocks, advancing as gamecocks
were transported between fights. It apparently
invaded commercial layer flocks through
contaminated clothing worn by workers who
participated in cockfighting.

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Cockfighting notes

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 2004:

Louisiana District Judge Charles Scott on February 3 ruled
that Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator may not enforce a local
ordinance to halt cockfights at the ArkLaTex Game Club near Ida and
the Piney Woods Game Club near Vivian because cockfighting is legal
in Louisiana, one of only two states that allow it, and a local
ordinance may not supersede state law.

Alleged cockfighter Efrain Aguilar and a land owner not named
by police were arrested on February 2 after a brawl at an illegal
cockpit in Tepeyac, Mexico. One man was beaten to death and six
were shot dead, including three men from one family and three
brothers from another.

Attempt to save fighting cattle comes to grief

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2003:

MOSCOW-2003 opened miserably for sisters Lena and Tanja
Marou-eva, who had to tell fellow members of People for
Animals/Russia and their supporters abroad that their August 2001
success in banning bullfights from Moscow had nonetheless ended with
the deaths of all 30 of the imported fighting bulls and cows they
struggled for two years to save.
In the end, they managed to bring just one of the cattle
into sanctuary care. Received in November, while ANMAL PEOPLE was
in Moscow, she was named Dinara, after the late ANIMAL PEOPLE
office cat Dennis the Menace, whose memorial appeared in the
November 2002 edition. A specially built paddock for Dinara was
nearly done when she succumbed to suspected poisoning.

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Greece considers new national animal control law in anticipation of 2004 Olympic furor

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  January/February 2003:

ATHENS-Greek deputy agriculture minister Fotis Hadzimichalis
on December 19,  2002 introduced a proposed national animal control
bill which according to Agence France-Press “would discourage Greeks
from abandoning their animals,  while allowing local authorities to
collect,  sterilize,  and in certain cases kill stray dogs.”
Hadzimichalis told Agence France-Presse that,  “This is the
practical answer to those who malignly accused our country of
creating crematoria for strays ahead of the 2004 Olympic Games.”
The proposed law reportedly stipulates that dogs found at
large will be vaccinated,  sterilized,  held for a reclaim period,
and then be returned to the capture point if deemed healthy and not
dangerous.  Those suffering from incurable illness or infirmity and
those considered dangerous will be killed.

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Cockfighting not wanted on reservations

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 2002:

CARNAGIE, Okla.–Oklahoma voters are expected to approve an
anti-cockfighting initiative on November 5 by a 2-1 margin, say
recent polls– and Native Americans are not going to help
cockfighting continue, tribal leaders warned in September, after
informants within the Oklahoma Gamefowl Breeders Association told
Kiowa attorney Jon Wyatt that someone was trying to sell members
permits to fight cocks on Native American reservations.
“Someone could try it,” Caddo Tribe chair LaRue Parker told
Ron Jackson of The Oklahoman. “But my God, I sure hope not.
Cockfighting goes against everything that is sacred to Indians. We
are the keepers of the land and protectors of the animals.”
Kiowa Tribe chair Clifford McKenzie pledged that any evidence
he discovered linking the Kiowa to cockfighting would be “turned over
to the proper federal authorities” for prosecution.

Pakistan conference

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

“A great peaceful gathering was organized in Multan,
Pakistan, on 19th July, 2002, under the leadership of Khalid
Mahmood Qureshi, chief editor of The Tension weekly newspaper,”
reported Shahzad Ahmed Khan in an e-mail to ANIMAL PEOPLE.
Topics of concern, according to Khan, included “the safety
and survival of rare animals and birds which are on the verge of
extinction”; the weakness and nonenforcement of Pakistan’s 1890
animal protection act; and animal fighting for entertainment,
involving cocks, quail, pheasants, bulls, camels, dogs, and
dogs set against tethered bears.
Participants in the gathering including Supreme Court
advocate Nafees Ansari and Arif Mahmood Qureshi, managing trustee of
Animal Rights International/Pakistan, raised banners bearing slogans
such as “Animals are the beauty of our earth,” and “Love the
animals–don’t tease or torture them,” Khan said.
“Banners also protested,” Khan wrote, “that the District
Court Bar of Multan and the Municipal Corporation of Multan recently
poisoned street dogs and feral cats.”

Legislative Calendar

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2002:

U.S. President George W. Bush on August 12 vetoed a $17.9
million Congressional appropriation of emergency funding to combat
Chronic Wasting Disease. Similar to “mad cow disease,” CWD attacks
deer and elk. Identified among captive deer and elk herds in
Colorado as far back as 1966, it was long regarded as an isolated
curiosity –but within the past year it has been detected as far east
as Wisconsin, as far north as Alberta and Manitoba, and as far
south as the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Suspicions are
growing, meanwhile, that like “mad cow disease,” it has begun
attacking and killing humans who eat the diseased portions of
infected animals. Part of a $5.1 billion anti-terrorism package,
the appropriation would have allocated $14.9 million to the USDA
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, $2 million to the
Agricultural Research Service, and $1 million to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. The federal agencies were in turn to
grant the money to their state counterpart agencies. Bush said he
vetoed the appropriation because the $5.1 billion bill included too
many other unrelated riders, such as funding for AIDS prevention and
aid to Israel and Palestine.

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Prairie dogs

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  September 2002:

WASHINGTON D.C.–The National Wildlife Federation on June 26,
2002 asked the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to protect blacktailed
prairie dogs throughout its holdings,  but continued to withhold any
denunciation of the 2002 Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation “gopher”
derby,  which killed more than 63,000 blacktailed prairie dogs and
Richardson’s ground squirrels.
The SWF is an affiliate of the Canadian Wildlife Federation,
which shares programs and policies with NWF.
Seven other U.S. conservation groups in early July asked the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list whitetailed prairie dogs as a
threatened species.  Utah and Mexican prairie dogs are already listed
as a threatened species,  and the Fish and Wildlife Service has
acknowledged that blacktailed prairie dogs are eligible for listing,
but has not assigned them a high priority on the waiting list of
candidate species.
Pressured by ranchers and prairie dog shooters,  the Nebraska
Game and Parks Commission on July 24 voted 5-1 against protecting
prairie dogs on state lands.

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