Cockfighters say they have few options

Wednesday, November 6th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Cockfighters say they will have few options after a ban on the blood sport takes effect Friday: kill their roosters, call animal control or risk arrest as they challenge the new law in court.

``We're probably going to hang on and see what happens,'' said James Tally, who owns 300 gamecocks in Kingston. ``In the meantime, everyone is gong to be a little nervous. I don't think anyone will be trying to have cockfights.''

The new law, effective when Tuesday's election results are ratified, makes it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine to hold cockfights, keep equipment or facilities for cockfighting or possess the birds.

``You go from something that's perfectly legal on Tuesday to a felony charge on Friday,'' said Tally, head of the Game Fowl Breeders Association. ``How could you vote to make it a felony with a punishment of up to 10 years in prison and a $25,000 fine to own a gamecock? The rural people didn't vote this in. It's Oklahoma City and Tulsa.''

Tally claims urban dwellers across the country ``have lost touch with rural America.'' He also was angry that Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment Tuesday prohibiting the confinement of pregnant sows in small cages.

``The city people vote to outlaw pig farming and then they go to the grocery store in six months and wonder why they can't get any bacon,'' he said.

Gamecock breeders could try to sell their birds to the only two states left in the nation that allow cockfighting: Louisiana and New Mexico. But that's risky because the new Oklahoma law prohibits raising roosters for the purpose of fighting and a federal law taking effect in May bans interstate transport of gamecocks.

Cockfighting supporters expect only a couple thousand of the 2.8 million gamecocks in Oklahoma will go to other states.

``Louisiana isn't going to come up here and buy 2.8 million game fowl,'' said Devin Smith, who owns about 100 birds in rural Oklahoma County.

Making rooster soup or fried chicken is highly unlikely, too.

``Game chickens are a lot tougher-meated than regular chickens that you eat,'' Smith said.

Animal rights activists who fought for three years to bring cockfighting to a statewide vote said gamecock breeders were trying to provoke unworthy sympathy with talk of killing their birds.

``Certainly no one will be arrested for owning a chicken,'' said Cynthia Armstrong, campaign manager for the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting. ``They are trying to use an animal welfare argument to bolster their defense of cockfighting. It's ludicrous.''

Law officers will have no trouble determining who is raising roosters to fight and who is simply raising roosters, she said. The law will work similarly to one on the Oklahoma books banning dogfighting, which hasn't resulted in arrests of regular pet owners, Armstrong said.

She also doubted cockfighting supporters would have any luck waging another court battle.

``The odds of that happening are, as they say, slim to none,'' she said. ``It would be a waste of their money.''

The anti-cockfighting coalition launched a petition drive in 1999 to qualify the issue for a statewide vote. Gamecock breeders challenged the petition in court, stalling a vote for three years.

A day after the election, cockfighting supporters said they needed more money and more time to educate people about the sport. They spent about $120,000 compared to about $550,000 for the anti-cockfighting coalition.

Tally figures many who voted for the cockfighting ban didn't bother to read the fine print, which says people raising roosters with training pens and feeding apparatus are committing a felony.

``We have been screaming at the top of our lungs, trying to tell people,'' he said. ``The law is pretty vague. That's the reason we have been so afraid of an election.''