ABQ Journal: This Law Enforcement Worth Crowing About
Tuesday, January 1, 2008

  When the state banned cockfighting last year, supporters and critics of the legislation alike questioned how the law would be enforced. Would local officials turn a blind eye? Would cockers carry through on a threat to go underground?
    They got the right answers just before Christmas.
    It's encouraging the Doña Ana County Sheriff's Department and the attorney general's Animal Cruelty Task Force got tips about a cockfighting "Christmas Derby" in Chaparral. It's heartening the Otero County sheriff then got a search warrant. It's reassuring more than 100 officers from various jurisdictions participated. It's promising that four men were cited; $22,000 in cash, gambling ledgers, syringes, spurs, computers and other paraphernalia were seized.
    And it's puzzling how anyone could argue the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo protects getting 138 roosters "so shot up with steroids and amphetamines to enhance performance" that they had to be euthanized.
    In the new year, the New Mexico Gamefowl Breeders Association may continue to challenge the constitutionality of the ban. After it was upheld Dec. 19 in state court in Lovington, association president Ronald Barron said an appeal "all the way to the New Mexico Supreme Court" was likely.
    In the meantime, the six roosters healthy enough to be confiscated are in the custody of Albuquerque animal control officials. Four Chaparral men face misdemeanor charges— which escalate to a felony punishable by up to 18 months in prison for third and subsequent offenses.
    And New Mexicans will start 2008 with the knowledge that many folks are working to ensure the state's animal protection laws are being enforced.