| COCKFIGHTING BILL IN NEW MEXICO
A bill that would have made participation in cockfighting a felony
in New Mexico passed the state House but was killed in the Senate
on March 28. It was the farthest a bill to ban cockfighting had
ever traveled in the New Mexico Legislature. Cockfighting pits are
located mainly throughout rural southern New Mexico. Though NM cockfighters
are mainly Hispanic, many Hispanics have spoken out against cockfighting
and said they resent the fact that cockfighting is being made a
cultural and racial issue in the state. A 2001 Research and Polling
Inc. survey indicated that 71 percent of registered Hispanic voters
support making cockfighting illegal. “This isn’t a case
of city people telling rural people what to do,” said Mae
Jeanne Rescineto de Garcia of Albuquerque. “Cockfighting has
always been wrong.” 77 percent of New Mexicans consider cockfighting
a barbaric blood sport that celebrates violence. State legislator
Ron Godbey, who introduced the bill to make cockfighting a felony,
said he will sponsor the bill again in 2 years at the next regular
session, if he’s still in office. If not, he said, someone
else will. (From The Boston Globe, 4/6/03.).
GOOSE-KILLING
In February 2003, seven members of the Kappa Sigma Chapter at Davidson
College in North Carolina lured a white goose with breadcrumbs,
then beat her to death with a golf club as part of a fraternity
initiation. Authorities charged the men with felony cruelty to animals
and conspiracy to commit cruelty to animals. Davidson College suspended
the fraternity’s activities while it investigated the cruelty.
Because these men were first offenders on an animal cruelty charge,
they couldn’t be imprisoned. Instead, Mecklenburg prosecutors
chose a deferred prosecution agreement in which the students agreed
to acknowledge their wrongdoing and apologize for it, submit to
substance abuse and psychological evaluations plus counseling, if
necessary, and perform 100 hours of community service. If they abide
by the agreement and stay out of trouble with the law for a year,
they won’t be prosecuted for the crime. The men said none
of them “felt right” about killing the goose. (From
The Charlotte Observer, 3/20/03)
The Supreme Executive Committee of Kappa Sigma fraternity’s
5-member international governing board voted unanimously to revoke
the Davidson College chapter’s charter “for conduct
unbecoming a chapter of our fraternity,” said Mitchell Wilson,
executive director of the fraternity. (From The Charlotte Observer,
3/30/03)
United Poultry Concerns thanks everyone who responded to our 3/5/03
request for letters to Mitchell Wilson, Executive Director of Kappa
Sigma fraternity.
United Poultry Concerns is a nonprofit organization that promotes
the compassionate and respectful treatment of domestic fowl. http://www.upc-online.org
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United Poultry Concerns, Inc.