By Jim Keen, DVM, PhD
Re: Advocacy groups supporting legislation to make cockfighting a felony in Kentucky, by Russ Cassady:
As a graduate in biological sciences at Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, I strongly support Senate Bill 243, by Senator Elkins, to make cockfighting a felony under Kentucky state law.
Kentucky is a beyond beautiful state, especially in the eastern Appalachian forests and mountains. However, there is a terrible, cruel, and dangerous underground activity flourishing in Kentucky, especially in the eastern backwoods: illegal cockfighting.
Kentucky is one of just seven states where cockfighting is only a misdemeanor at the state level. Cockfighting is a felony under federal law and there have been several federal prosecutions in Kentucky in recent years. The Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police and the Kentucky Sheriffs Association support SB 243.
My perspective is unique as Director of Veterinary Science for Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. I am an agricultural veterinarian with a doctorate in infectious disease epidemiology. I have also worked as a food animal clinician, a veterinary infectious disease researcher at the USDA’s Meat Animal Research Center in Nebraska for two decades, and as faculty at the University of Nebraska School of Veterinary Medicine for 13 years.
Cockfighting activity brings with it a plethora of social pathologies, ranging from illegal drugs to gang activity to prostitution and even murder. As a seasoned infectious disease veterinarian, I can also tell you from personal experience that cockfighting also creates serious avian and zoonotic (human) disease risks.
Virulent Newcastle disease (vND), along with avian influenza (Bird flu) are the two most dangerous avian diseases, and global in impact. Birds infected with, or exposed to, vND and bird flu that have not already died from these viral infections are immediately euthanized to control viral spread.
For six weeks in Spring 2003, in my capacity as a scientist with USDA, I worked with a large team to control an enormous vND outbreak in Southern California. The vND virus is endemic in Mexico, and virus fingerprinting, as well as epidemiologic investigations, pinpointed this outbreak to smuggling of gamecocks across our border for illegal cockfighting.
Ten of the 15 vND outbreaks in the US originated from gamecocks smuggled for cockfights. Furthermore, cockfighting is also a major means of virus spread within the US, as many persons involved in cockfighting activity also work in commercial poultry operations. More than a billion taxpayer dollars were spent on controlling vND outbreaks, mostly linked to cockfighting, since the first outbreak in 1972.
Of great concern is the ongoing Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) H5N1 virus. This bird flu virus has killed 82 million US poultry in the past 2 years, by far the largest and most expensive animal disease outbreak in American history. Poultry in 472 commercial flocks and 636 backyard flocks have died. In addition, millions of wild birds, from mallards to eagles, and hundreds of wild mammals, from raccoons to grizzly bears, have died from this bird flu strain.
Kentucky’s poultry industry is valued at $1.2 billion (the eighth largest in the US), producing 308 million broilers and 1.2 billion eggs annually on 928 poultry operations. Kentucky has been fortunate in that only two backyard and two commercial farms were infected with HPAI H5N1, causing the death of 284,000 poultry in the state.
Avian influenza H5N1 normally spreads in birds but can also infect humans. Globally, 882 cases of human infection with avian influenza H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, including the U.S. Of these 882 cases, 461 were fatal (52%), one of the highest fatality rates for any human infectious disease. Even worse, a simple mutation could make bird flu H5N1 spread rapidly and infect/kill people. Unfortunately, the USDA does not report cockfighting operations among the 636 “backyard flocks” so far infected with H5N1 bird flu, but I am certain many are illegal cockfighting farms. In southeast Asia, where bird flu H5N1 first emerged, most human cases are among persons with close contact with poultry, including cockfighters.
For the health and welfare of the people and poultry in the Commonwealth, we must support SB 243. Cockfighting is a barbaric practice with no acceptable place in our civilized society.
Jim Keen is Director of Veterinary Science for Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, two animal protection non-profits.
By Jim Keen, DVM, PhD
Director of Veterinary Sciences
Animal Wellness Action
Email: jim.keen@animalwellnesaction.org
