{"id":3428,"date":"2008-07-07T07:50:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-07T13:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/07\/ny-times-n-m-s-ban-hasnt-stopped-cockfighting\/"},"modified":"2008-07-07T07:50:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-07T13:50:00","slug":"ny-times-n-m-s-ban-hasnt-stopped-cockfighting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/07\/ny-times-n-m-s-ban-hasnt-stopped-cockfighting\/","title":{"rendered":"NY Times: N.M.’s ban hasn’t stopped cockfighting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thus far, New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s ban on cockfighting hasn\u2019t stopped the bloody sport, which \u201ccontinues unabated in hidden venues,\u201d according to a weekend article in The New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

A December raid in Chaparral, The Times reported, didn\u2019t yield the results officials expected: 150 law-enforcement officers from four counties descended upon a fight expecting to find 300 cockfighters. Instead, they found fewer than a dozen people, seized 12 roosters and issued four misdemeanor citations.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Officials say, according to The Times, that the cockfighters had been tipped off.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems they\u2019re always one step ahead of us,\u201d Robyn Gojkovich, the state\u2019s first full-time animal control investigator, told the newspaper.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Last week officers discovered a cockfighting ring in Do\u00f1a Ana. They estimate it was last used two to three weeks before being found, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Cockfighting has been illegal in Do\u00f1a<\/st1:placename> Ana<\/st1:placename> County<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> for some time, but the statewide ban wasn\u2019t enacted until 2007, when Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia<\/a> succeeded in pushing through legislation she had sought for most of her 20-year career. The ring discovered last week is located in the community Garcia calls home.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the animal-protection people are telling me is that (cockfighters) are still out there, thinking that they can hide,\u201d Garcia told the Sun-News. \u201cThey\u2019re being found.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ed Lowry, a rooster breeder from Chaparral, disagreed in The Times article.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThey ain\u2019t shutting nothing down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> was the 49th state to make cockfighting illegal. Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> will become the last later this year. The Times reported that New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> has \u201cdevoted vast resources\u201d to combating cockfighting but has secured only one misdemeanor conviction thus far. Because cockfighting is a misdemeanor in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>, illegal fights here are continuing to attract fighters from four neighboring states where it\u2019s a felony.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

How do cockfighters successfully carry out clandestine fights? They have relocated from arenas to secret venues on \u201csprawling properties,\u201d The Times reported. \u201cLookouts are stationed atop dusty mesas, and speakers, which in the past blared mariachi music, now carry feeds from police scanners.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

An appropriate expenditure?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Some police officers told The Times that the focus on combating cockfighting is taking resources from fighting more serious crimes like drunken driving and amphetamine abuse. Several — none who would be named — told the newspaper \u201cthey are frustrated at how politicians are disproportionately emphasizing the crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even investigate misdemeanors on other crimes,\u201d one officer told the newspaper. \u201c\u2026 We wasted $10,000 on a recent misdemeanor. I\u2019d rather use that for a D.U.I. checkpoint and take 20 people off the road in the three hours and save lives over chickens. I feel good when we save chickens, but whoop-de-do, a misdemeanor?\u201d <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White<\/a> and Heather Ferguson, legislative director for Animal Protection Voters of New Mexico<\/a>, told The Times that the ban has led to a shift on public opinion on animal cruelty issues.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cNew Mexico<\/st1:state> is on the verge of having a modern culture,\u201d The Times quoted Ferguson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> as saying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thus far, New Mexico\u2019s ban on cockfighting hasn\u2019t stopped the bloody sport, which \u201ccontinues unabated in hidden venues,\u201d according to a weekend article in The New York Times. A December raid in Chaparral, The Times reported, didn\u2019t yield the results officials expected: 150 law-enforcement officers from four counties descended upon a fight expecting to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}