Louisiana Residents: Urge the Senate to Prohibit Cockfighting!

SB 652, prohibiting cockfighting, passed out of its first committee assignment but was recommitted to the Senate Agriculture Committee on the floor of the Senate by a vote of 21-16. SB 652 will prohibit cockfighting, as well as the acts of transporting fighting birds, organizing, promoting, conducting, and/or financially or materially supporting a cockfight.

Cockfighting has been identified by international health organizations as a major contributor of the spread of avian flu throughout large parts of Asia. It has been found that handlers of fighting birds have contracted “bird flu” from their infected birds and died. According to World Health Organization officials, infected fighting cocks have caused at least eight confirmed human cases of “bird flu” in the past 24 months, including the death of a 13-year-old Vietnamese boy who frequented cockfights and often held the birds before the bouts.

Please contact the Senate Agriculture Committee today and ask that they do everything they can to protect the citizens of Louisiana by voting YES on SB 652 and prohibiting cockfighting!