Death by rooster
A freak accident at a cockfight is just one more reason why California should take a harder line on this inhumane 'sport.'
5:38 PM PST, February 8, 2011 LA Times EXCERPT:
An incident in Central California last week was so bizarre that the headlines it generated wouldn't be out of place in a supermarket tabloid next to tales of alien babies and Elvis sightings: "Man Killed by Rooster." More specifically, one of the feathered contestants in an illegal cockfight in Tulare County, armed with a blade attached to its leg, apparently stabbed 35-year-old Jose Luis Ochoa in the calf, and Ochoa was declared dead of "sharp force injury" two hours later.
This isn't the first time someone has died in what is supposed to be blood sport for birds; last summer in Merced, two men got into an argument over a $10 bet, one pulled out a gun and killed the other, and the victim's brother and another man allegedly beat the shooter to death. But aside from the question of whether cockfights are humane for humans, they raise serious concerns about whether the state of California is doing enough to discourage them.
Californians earned a reputation for their conscientiousness about animal welfare after passing the nation's first ban on the use of battery cages for egg-laying hens in 2008. Yet while we don't want to crowd chickens, we don't seem to have much of a problem with letting people attach razor-sharp knives to their fighting spurs and place bets on which one will survive. Cockfighting is a felony in nearby states such as Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, but it's only a misdemeanor on a first offense in California, rising to a felony on a second strike.
END EXCERPT
If the Times had any sense of humor, the headline would read: "Man killed by cock"
No, this isn't in the same vein as the yogurt story. The show Southland on TNT, had an episode a couple of weeks ago, where the bad guy was at a cockfight and ran when the police came to arrest him, so, they made a radio call, "Suspect running with his cock in his hand." Then when they tackled him, he was screaming, "Don't hurt my cock."
What a dick.
A freak accident at a cockfight is just one more reason why California should take a harder line on this inhumane 'sport.'
5:38 PM PST, February 8, 2011 LA Times EXCERPT:
An incident in Central California last week was so bizarre that the headlines it generated wouldn't be out of place in a supermarket tabloid next to tales of alien babies and Elvis sightings: "Man Killed by Rooster." More specifically, one of the feathered contestants in an illegal cockfight in Tulare County, armed with a blade attached to its leg, apparently stabbed 35-year-old Jose Luis Ochoa in the calf, and Ochoa was declared dead of "sharp force injury" two hours later.
This isn't the first time someone has died in what is supposed to be blood sport for birds; last summer in Merced, two men got into an argument over a $10 bet, one pulled out a gun and killed the other, and the victim's brother and another man allegedly beat the shooter to death. But aside from the question of whether cockfights are humane for humans, they raise serious concerns about whether the state of California is doing enough to discourage them.
Californians earned a reputation for their conscientiousness about animal welfare after passing the nation's first ban on the use of battery cages for egg-laying hens in 2008. Yet while we don't want to crowd chickens, we don't seem to have much of a problem with letting people attach razor-sharp knives to their fighting spurs and place bets on which one will survive. Cockfighting is a felony in nearby states such as Oregon, Arizona and New Mexico, but it's only a misdemeanor on a first offense in California, rising to a felony on a second strike.
END EXCERPT
If the Times had any sense of humor, the headline would read: "Man killed by cock"
No, this isn't in the same vein as the yogurt story. The show Southland on TNT, had an episode a couple of weeks ago, where the bad guy was at a cockfight and ran when the police came to arrest him, so, they made a radio call, "Suspect running with his cock in his hand." Then when they tackled him, he was screaming, "Don't hurt my cock."
What a dick.
