Tossing roosters into a pit to fight each other to the death is distasteful enough, but sometimes the humans who profit from such animal cruelty don't want to take any chances on the combatants' passivity. They give the gamecocks stimulants to increase their aggressiveness and strap razor-edged knives or pointed gaffs to their legs.
While cockfighting (and dog fighting) date from the nation's rural past, they are a chapter of the American experience that is best relegated to history books. Every state except Louisiana and New Mexico has now outlawed the blood sport.
Florida's law hasn't been very effective, however. Although it is illegal to hold a cockfight here, it is not a crime to breed or possess fighting animals. Consequently, there are more than 2,500 Florida farms raising gamecocks that end up in fights.
Some of those breeders talked to Times staff writer Wes Allison. William Torres, who raises gamecocks in Sumter County, admitted that a potentially valuable rooster first has to be tested in a cockfight. "You can't have a bird that will turn tail and run when confronted with the enemy," Torres explained.
But even the winner sometimes dies in a cockfight, according to the Humane Society of the United States: "Unable to escape the fight, no matter how injured or exhausted they are, the birds suffer punctured lungs, broken bones and pierced eyes."
It is a shameful abuse, one that the state of Florida should rid itself of as soon as possible. The Florida Legislature passed a bill that would close the legal loophole used by breeders. It is awaiting Gov. Jeb Bush's signature.
The bill would make it illegal to raise an animal for the purpose of fighting and would outlaw the sale or possession of paraphernalia such as leg knives and gaffs used in cockfights. The penalty for those watching an animal fight would be raised from a misdemeanor to a felony. Combined with a new federal law that makes it a crime to transport gamecocks across state lines, state and federal law enforcement officials should be able to put those who breed the animals out of business. That day can't come too soon.
