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From February 2, 2007 from the Santa Fe New Mexican:
By DAVID MILLES | The New Mexican
February 2, 2007
Ban clears Senate panel; critics contend practice will continue underground
A bill to outlaw cockfighting in New Mexico cleared its first — and likely biggest — hurdle Thursday when it won the endorsement of a Senate panel that has blocked such legislation in the past.
The 5-3 vote marked the first time the Senate Conservation Committee has approved a statewide ban, said Senate Majority Whip Mary Jane Garcia, a Doña Ana Democrat who introduced her first bill to ban cockfighting as a freshman legislator in 1989.
Senate Bill 10, which would leave Louisiana as the only state that still allows the practice, advances to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The House has approved previous attempts to prohibit cockfighting, but the Senate Conservation Committee in past years effectively killed such bills by tabling them.
“I have a very good feeling about it in my heart,” said Garcia, who cried after the committee voted Thursday in front of a packed Senate chamber.
Gov. Bill Richardson, who is exploring a run for the presidency, recently ended his neutral stance on the issue and came out for the ban as did the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Supporters and opponents of cockfighting filled the Senate chamber and gallery for the committee hearing, which had been moved to the Senate floor because of the anticipated turnout.
Garcia called cockfighting a cruel and bloody practice that promotes illegal gambling, drug use and underage drinking while giving the state a black eye. “I think that we can do better for our young kids of New Mexico,” Garcia said.
But Las Cruces cockfighter Diana VanHoozen said she takes her children to cockfights. “They are good kids,” she testified, noting they receive all As on their report cards. “They are not barbaric,” VanHoozen said, “and neither am I.”
Ronald Barron, president of the New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association, said Garcia shouldn’t be able to impose a cockfighting ban on counties and municipalities that have not approved local ordinances to
prohibit the practice.
Cockfighting has been banned in 13 counties and nearly 30 municipalities in New Mexico.
A critical factor in the bill’s endorsement Thursday was the absence of Sen. Richard Martinez, D-Española. If Martinez had voted against the bill, it would have remained in the committee on a tie vote. The committee tabled a proposed cockfighting ban (SB 70) sponsored by Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales.
Under Garcia’s bill, New Mexicans would be guilty of a fourth-degree felony if they attended or participated in a cockfight or if they owned, equipped or trained a cock for the purposes of fighting.
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Phil Griego, a Democrat from the San Miguel County village of San Jose, voted against the bill. He predicted that passage of the measure would lead to legislation banning smoking,
rodeos, fishing, hunting and branding livestock in New Mexico. “We are taking away a tradition, a culture, and criminalizing it,” Griego said.
Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White supported banning cockfighting, which he said is linked to several crimes, including illegal gambling and drug trafficking. “This is not about culture,” White said, “It’s about animal cruelty.” Representatives from the state Attorney General’s Office and the Economic Development Department also spoke in favor of the bill.
However, Griego argued that outlawing cockfighting merely would drive the practice underground. “No matter what happens here, these traditions will continue,” Griego said before the committee voted.
Voting for the measure were Senate President Pro Tem Ben Altamirano, D-Silver City; Sens. Bill Payne, R-Albuquerque; John Pinto, D-Tohatchi; John Ryan, R-Albuquerque; and Bill Sharer, R-Farmington. Griego, Sens. Clint Harden Jr., R-Clovis; and James Taylor, D-Albuquerque; voted against the bill.
From the February 6, 2007 Santa Fe New Mexican:
Senate panel OKs cockfight ban
By STEVE TERRELL | The New Mexican
February 6, 2007
The push to ban cockfighting in New Mexico cleared another legislative hurdle Monday, but not before a Senate committee decreased the penalty for a first offense.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 7-3 to give a do-pass recommendation for Senate Bill 10, sponsored by Sen. Mary Jane Garcia, D-Doña Ana. The bill goes on to the full Senate, where Garcia said a vote could take place by the end of the week.
Before voting on the bill, the committee added an amendment making a first offense a misdemeanor for those who “cause, sponsor, arrange, hold, or participate” in a cockfight “for monetary gain or entertainment.”
Second and subsequent offenses would be considered fourth-degree felonies. Under state law, misdemeanors carry a maximum jail sentence of 364 days. Those convicted of a fourth-degree felony, the least-severe felony category, can serve as much as 18 months in prison.
Garcia agreed to the amendment but noted that 33 of the 48 states that ban cockfighting make it a felony for first offenses. Opponents of cockfighting argue the spectacle amounts to cruelty to animals.
Among those speaking in favor of the bill was Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White, who said cockfighting is associated with gambling and narcotics. “The connection between animal cruelty and violence is well documented,” he said.
Cockfighting proponents disputed the link between the sport and illegal activity.
Jack Cairnes, a former Washington state legislator now living in Hobbs, told the committee he participates in cockfights like his father and grandfather before him. He admitted he made bets totaling $350 over the weekend at a cockfight in Southern New Mexico.
Cairnes blamed the ban on a “small group of extremists traveling from state to state interfering with rural life” — a statement mocked by Arturo Sandoval of the Center for Southwest Culture, who is a native New Mexican opposed to cockfighting.
Sen. Rod Adair, R-Roswell, who voted against the bill, tried to get Lisa Jennings of Animal Protection Voters to pledge that she wouldn’t return to the Legislature to seeks bans on rodeos, hunting or fishing.
Jennings said no other state that bans cockfighting has banned those other activities, but said it would be impossible to rule out her group’s future decisions.
While New Mexico and Louisiana are the only states with legal cockfighting, this state is not the only one dealing with a cockfighting bill. The Virginia state Senate last week passed a bill that would make cockfighting a felony. Under current Virginia law, cockfighting is illegal only if admission is charged to watch the fights or if prizes are awarded for the animals that survive.
Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Additional Information:
Facts: Cockfighting Bans in New Mexico
Facts: Cockfighting Bans in the United States
Poll Results:What the Public Says About Cockfighting
Q & A: The Truth About Cockfighting in New Mexico
Endorsements: Voices Against Violence – in support of a statewide cockfighting ban
Legislative History: Past Efforts to Ban Cockfighting in New Mexico
Federal Legislation: Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act
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