Arizona Citizens Against Cockfighting and Missourians
Against Cockfighting won major victories for chickens at the
polls on November 3rd. Voters in both states told the
cockamaniacs and crow-magnons to try peace instead. The Arizona
and Missouri campaigns demonstrate what targeted, tough-minded,
fact-filled compassion can accomplish. When Arizona Citizens
president, Jamie Massey, was considering a campaign to ban
cockfighting a few years ago, he wondered if chickens stood a
chance in Arizona. And no wonder. In 1996, the Arizona House
Judiciary Committee voted 8-3 to reject a bill that would have
made cockfighting illegal, while cockfighters rehashed the old
cruelty formula: "blankety-blank has a long tradition and
cultural ties."
In 1996, Frank Celaya, a Phoenix cockfighting supporter and
Vietnam veteran, took off his artificial leg and held it out to
the committee, hollering, "If this is not enough for my country,
to be able to come and fight chickens whenever I want to fight
chickens, then what is this country coming to?"
To its senses?
The victories in Missouri and Arizona are not only major but
unique: never before in any state has there been a ballot measure
banning cockfighting. Jamie Massey (AZ), Sandy Mickelson (MO) and
their troops who won these ballot battles, illustrate the famous
paradox, "All great ideas degenerate into hard work." And the
equally important paradox, "Only hard work can make a great idea
come true."
United Poultry Concerns was pleased to provide our full
support from beginning to end in the form of information about
the normal social life of chickens, Action Alerts, financial
assistance, and letters to the editor. As the campaign to ban
cockfighting nationwide pushes on to other states such as
Oklahoma and Louisiana, let it be proclaimed: cockfighting is a
strictly human activity. (See Jamie Massey's excellent fact
sheet, "What Cockfighters Don't Understand.") If cockfighters
would simply imitate the rooster in his natural condition, this
would automatically eliminate cockfighting.
For more information, call AZ Citizens Against Cockfighting
(Tucson: 520 722-0129, Phoenix: 602-392-4272); and Missourians
Against Cockfighting (St. Louis: 314-644-7070).
See Previous Action Alert: Ballot Initiatives to Ban Cockfighting In
November
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