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Cockfighting Ban Will End An Era In Rural America

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The Associated Press

Published: August 11, 2008

BATON ROUGE, La. - Gory and bucolic all at once, cockfights have drawn crowds to small-time pits and full-blown arenas in towns across Louisiana for generations. By the end of the week, they'll be against the law. Everywhere.

On Friday, Louisiana will become the last state to outlaw the rooster fights, a move that cockfighting enthusiasts say marks the end of a rich rural tradition.

"The culture, the custom of the Cajun people, it's gone," said Chris Daughdrill, who breeds fighting roosters in Loranger, a community 50 miles north of New Orleans.

Maybe so, but supporters and opponents agree that the blood sport won't be wiped out entirely. Like bootlegging, cockfights will continue on the sly in remote areas.

"They're still going to fight, they're still going to fight for years to come," said Elizabeth Barras, who with husband Dale ran a cockfighting pit in St. Martin Parish for 14 years. "They've still got cockfighting in every state. They just hide it from the law."

The fights between specially trained roosters are held in large arenas or in backyards. The birds are fitted with sharp metal blades or curved spikes on their legs, and instinctively attack each other. The match can last more than an hour, with one or both animals dead or maimed.

In banning the fights, Louisiana relented after years of pressure from the Humane Society of the United States and other animal-rights groups.

High-profile defenders of cockfighting in Louisiana began softening their stance on the fights after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco - a native of Cajun country, where the fights have deep roots - signed the ban last year, closing a loophole in state law that excluded chickens from animal cruelty laws. First-time offenders caught participating in cockfights will face maximum $1,000 fines and six-month prison terms.

Though the ban on cockfighting takes effect Friday, it has been illegal since last year to gamble on cockfights - a separate law passed as a precursor to the total ban.

Daughdrill, head of the Louisiana Gamefowl Breeders Association, said the number of large, active cockfighting pits has dropped from 20 last year to about six. Membership in the association has plummeted roughly 90 percent, from 6,000 last year to 600.

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