Animal Issues @ Brownwood's Front Door
Cockfighting school in Blanket closing
By Celinda Emison / emisonc@reporternews.com
December 2, 2006
Mike Ratliff, who has been teaching beginning cockfighting for more than 10 years in Blanket, says a recent announcement by the U.S. Humane Society about the closure of his school there will not keep him from practicing what he calls ''the sport of kings.''
On Thursday U.S. Humane Society advocates celebrated the closure of what they called the nation's last cockfighting school, dubbed the ''School for Beginning Cockers.'' The animal rights activists reported that more than 8,000 people have been taught how to train fighting roosters there over the years.
Cockfighting is a centuries-old activity that involves birds or roosters that have been trained to fight. Their legs are fitted with sharp weapons such as blades or gaffs - sometimes in place of a rooster's spur, a bony protrusion on its leg. Matches are usually fought to the death. Many cockfighting spectators gamble on the fights, and it is illegal in 48 states, including Texas.
''We don't have schools for drug running or organizing a prostitution ring, and we shouldn't have a school for cockfighting,'' said Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, in a press release. ''It is a relief that this so-called school has closed, but we are still dealing with the 'graduates' of this program who are engaging in their criminal conduct throughout the country.''
Ratliff, 83, is retiring from running the school in Blanket, about 85 miles southeast of Abilene near the Brown County/Comanche County line. He finished his final two-week session Nov. 18. In each class, he had from 12 to 18 students and lamented that ''there is no one to take my place.''
Ratliff said he taught the basics of the care, breeding, feeding and culture of ''game fowl'' and did not refer to the school as a ''cockfighting school.''
''The attraction for me is helping beginners learn,'' Ratliff said.
Ratliff said he has between 400 and 500 fowl, including hens and roosters, on his property. However, he also said he has never engaged in cockfighting on his property in Brown County.
''Never in my life have I done that,'' Ratliff said. ''You know it is illegal in Texas, so if you want to do that, you have to travel and go where it is legal.''
Officials at sheriff's offices in Brown and Comanche counties said they had not heard of the school in Blanket.
Brown County Assistant District Attorney Perry Sims said there is no specific code prohibiting anyone from having such a school.
''As long as the animal is not being tortured, hurt or deprived of food,'' Sims said. ''There is no specific code against teaching cockfighting, but there may be other charges that could arise if they are engaging in criminal activity.''
Ratliff said he has been involved in the sport for 77 years - since he was introduced to fighting cocks when he was a child in Cross Plains.
''It fascinated me,'' he said.
Ratliff has taught and participated in cockfighting all over the world since 1968.
Washington lawmakers have introduced legislation prohibiting the practice nationwide. The federal Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act would establish felony penalties for trafficking (nationally or internationally) of any fighting animals.
''The U.S. Congress can further the ultimate demise of the illegal cockfighting industry by passing the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act before the end of the year,'' John Goodwin of the U.S. Humane Society said in a press release. ''Misdemeanor penalties are not a deterrent to a cockfighter, who can earn thousands of dollars in a single night.''
Ratliff said the sport will not go away.
''Cockfighters are here forever,'' Ratliff said. ''The only thing the Humane Society can do is kill the people and the chickens.''
EDITED BY: BRIEN MURPHY; COPY EDITED BY: BEVERLY BUTMAN; HEADLINE BY: BEVERLY BUTMAN
Cockfighting laws
In Texas, cockfighting is a state jail felony and can carry a state prison sentence of up to two years.
Cockfighting is illegal in 48 states. The two states where it is legal are Texas' neighbors: New Mexico and Louisiana. Since 1998, the number of states that provide felony penalties for cockfighting has risen from 17 to 33.
During the same period, three states where cockfighting was once legal adopted laws to ban the practice.
source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_local/article/0,1874,ABIL_7959_5185157,00.html
-------------------
HSU prof named as fellow at center for animal ethics
By Brian Bethel / bethelb@reporternews.com
December 2, 2006
More than two years ago, Susan Pigott, professor of Old Testament and Hebrew at Hardin-Simmons University, became a vegetarian.
The chicken she was making for dinner one night was the last straw.
''I thought: This is a dead animal, and I'm not going to do this anymore,'' she said.
Now, Pigott will have an opportunity to take her compassion for creatures a step further, having just been named one of the first six fellows of the new Oxford Center for Animal Ethics.
Pigott has plans to take a sabbatical to study in-depth the issue of animal ethics in a Christian context, an area with little work to this point from the perspective of Biblical scholarship, she said.
While her choice to become a vegetarian was not initially a theological issue, she said, she now hopes to bring a balanced voice to the fore on what the Bible says about animals and humanity's responsibility to them.
That will require much reading and consideration, she said. Pigott hopes to present the fruits of her research in the Center's journal publication.
Pigott still eats eggs and dairy products, although she plans to wean herself off of them, she said.
More than 40 theologians, out of 100 academics, have been named advisers to the center, which a press release calls ''the world's first academy dedicated to the enhancement of the ethical status of animals through academic publication, teaching and research.''
Academics worldwide from both the sciences and the humanities are eligible to become fellows of the center, which will act as an ''international, independent think tank for the advancement of progressive thought about animals.''
A new dominion
In the creation account given in the first chapter of Genesis, God is depicted as giving ''dominion'' to mankind over the earth, a statement that many interpret as meaning animals and the earth are here for our use, Pigott said.
''The usual interpretation is that we are superior beings and that God has ordained for us to utilize these things however we please,'' she said.
But Pigott said she believes there is not such wholesale liberty given to mankind.
''We are called to serve, rather than to use,'' she said.
There are, she admits, passages that are not as friendly to animal ethicists, from the ''willy-nilly'' use of animals as sacrifices in the Old Testament to the fact that Jesus apparently wasn't a vegetarian to Paul's discussions of food.
Pigott points, though, toward the potential for humans to create something akin to the ''peaceable kingdom'' of Christ on earth, with humanity and creation living in harmony.
''Christ taught us to not assume that that just because the world is imperfect we shouldn't strive for that goal,'' she said.
While some groups such as the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sometimes rely on shock value to get the message of animal suffering across, Pigott hopes that the Oxford Center will help by presenting arguments on an intellectual and rational level.
''A lot of people don't think about where they get their meat, and they don't wonder how it got there,'' she said. ''They just pay for it. I was like that myself.''
Pigott said more dialogue, especially among Christians, was essential
''I think religious people of all faiths need to start thinking about and talking about this,'' she said. ''It's a very important social issue, well beyond just the question of 'do animals suffer?'''
The issue stretches into everything from environmentalism to world hunger, in addition to the question of animal suffering and the correctness - or incorrectness - of using animals for experimentation.
In a press release provided by the center, its first director, Oxford theologian the Rev. Andrew Linzey, said the support of such a large number of internationally recognized academics ''underlines just how important animals are as a moral issue.''
'There is a strong rational case for animals, which has been recognized over the centuries by academics and philosophers,'' he said. ''What is needed is for this rational case to be much better known and there are now signs that progressive thinking is becoming mainstream.''
Animals are now recognized as sentient beings in European law, and, in the United Kingdom the most comprehensive - and long overdue - overhaul of animal welfare legislation for almost a century is shortly to be enacted into law, Linzey said.
''We must strive to ensure animal issues are highlighted and rationally discussed throughout society,'' he said. ''We cannot change the world for animals without changing our ideas about them.''
EDITED BY: PATTI STEELE; COPY EDITED BY: BEVERLY BUTMAN; HEADLINE BY: BEVERLY BUTMAN
source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_ed_coll_univ/article/0,1874,ABIL_7950_5185165,00.html
---------------------
<< Home