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Animal Defenders of Westchester |
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Home Page We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts. Animal Defenders of Westchester |
Campaigns Cockfighting for the Squeamish NY TIMES Now that Oklahoma's citizenry has forced the
state to ban cockfighting, a diehard state senator has the gall to try to
revive the lurid pastime by equipping roosters with - picture this - tiny
boxing gloves and chest protectors. Nothing so far about teeny-weeny shorts
and head protectors, or a trained monkey with a wee bow tie who knows the
10-count. But State Senator Frank Shurden seems open to any idea in his
obsession to bring cockfights back to Oklahoma, one of the last states to
ban them. Voters had to bypass obstructive legislators like him two years ago with
a referendum to outlaw the pits where thousands of birds fought to the death
for the blood-spattered delight of illicit gamblers. This year, having lost in court, the state's defunct fighting cock
industry seems intent on abusing chickens via human parody, right down to an
electronic scoring system to record combatants' pecks, �p�e-like, by way of
the avian chest protectors. "Who's going to object to chickens fighting like humans do?" asks Senator
Shurden, the choice of the people, if not the roosters, in Henryetta. Voters
thought that they took care of Oklahoma's national embarrassment two years
ago. But they still have Senator Shurden scratching and clucking about,
dropping free-ranging initiatives into the hopper. Fair Use Notice: This document may contain
copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the
copyright owners. We believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on
the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for
in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted
material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain
permission from the copyright owner.
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