[ OUR OPINION ]
TRANSPORTING roosters across state lines to be thrust into the cruel blood sport of cockfighting has been illegal for 26 years, except for a self-defeating loophole. The farm bill signed this week by President Bush closed the loophole, but the effectiveness of the prohibition will depend on the degree of enforcement and the outcome of legal challenges. The revised law should be tested at the earliest opportunity. Gamecock shipping ban
calls for vigilance
THE ISSUE Congress has closed a loophole in a federal law aimed at banning interstate transportation of roosters for fighting.
The old law prohibited interstate or foreign shipment of birds for fighting purposes except to the three states where cockfighting is legal -- Louisiana, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The effect of the exception was wider: In Hawaii and 20 other states that allow possession of birds for fighting but disallow cockfighting itself, owners receiving fighting birds from elsewhere could say they were to be used for the purpose of breeding gamecocks for fights in the three states where it is legal.
That answer is no longer sufficient. The new law makes it just as illegal to transport the birds to those three states as it is to other states. Gamecock breeders no longer can say that was their intent in receiving birds shipped here from elsewhere, including foreign countries where cockfighting is allowed.
However, aggressive law enforcement will be required in order to legally draw the inference that a Hawaii recipient of a shipment of gamecocks has the intention of putting them in a cockfighting pit. The intent probably could be proved only through the gamecock owner's possession of gaffs -- the sharp metal spurs used to slash opposing roosters -- or other cockfighting accouterments obtained through a search warrant.
Paul Romias, who unabashedly raises about 400 fighting roosters on his Waianae farm, indicated the new law may cramp his operation. However, he said he expects the new restriction could lead merely to cockfighting enthusiasts relying on locally bred gamecocks.
"We usually bring in new roosters and hens for new bloodlines and try to improve our flock," Romias told the Star-Bulletin. "You need new blood, different genes."
The new law may be more effective in Hawaii than in other states, where breeders are likely to truck their gamefowl unnoticed across state lines. However, the state remains primarily responsible for the continued presence of the barbaric sport in the islands.
Next year's Legislature needs to gain cockfighters' attention by making their crime a felony, a proposal blocked in this year's session by House Judiciary Chairman Eric G. Hamakawa, citing "cockfighting constituents" in his Big Island district.
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