Stop the Brutality of Cockfighting
* There is a faulty perception that Hispanic Americans are generally supportive of cockfighting (“Cockfighting Might Be Making a Comeback,” May 3). Nothing could be further from the truth.
Last year, the Humane Society of the United States conducted extensive polling in Arizona, in anticipation of a 1998 ballot initiative to ban this bloody spectacle.
The poll revealed that Hispanic opposition to cockfighting was greater than Anglo opposition, though Anglo opinion was also decidedly against cockfighting.
Arizona voters, rural and urban, Hispanic and Anglo, imposed a cockfighting ban and felony-level penalties in a landslide vote.
Cockfighting is animal cruelty in its worst form, as handlers affix gaffs to their legs and place them in a pit to fight to the death for mere human entertainment.
Federal legislation is pending that would bar any interstate shipment of birds for fighting purposes. It is long overdue.
WAYNE PACOLLO
Senior Vice President
The Humane Society
of the United States
Washington
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