Now that I have your attention...I wanted to blog about a serious, little known issue in Alabama. A bill recently went before the Alabama House of Representatives (HB74) that would increase penalties for cockfighting. Under current laws, the act of cockfighting is punishable by a fine of $20-$30. When you make thousands, sometimes millions, of dollars off of cockfighting why the hell would you worry about losing even 50 bucks?! Alabama has the most lenient laws on cockfighting than any other U.S. state or territory. So, naturally, people come from all over to participate in massive events that have little consequences.
When HB 74 went before the house, most of the representatives elected not to even hear the bill. Many of the representatives claimed that they believed that there are a lot of citizens on their districts that are pro cockfighting, but when an official poll was taken over 80% of Alabamians were for the new bill. Other representatives were likely influenced by the protesters outside and others were contacted by nearby state representatives who do not want our laws to change. How our state can justify taking suck strong action on dog fighting, yet almost condone cockfighting is outrageous. If you would like to see change in our state's law, follow this link to learn more and to take action.
(Can'r believe The Birmingham News has not written on this more recently, but this was the most recent article I could find)
al.com - http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/metro.ssf?/base/news/1233220642323730.xml&coll=2
No comments:
Post a Comment