Darren U. Talissen asked:
As most of you know, at this point in time, gamefowl are among the best cared for animals out there. This does not only apply in the livestock world, or even the pet world for that matter. I strongly believe that most gamefowl receive quality care rivaling that of animal performers. The farmer’s wife who has a small flock of chickens typically will feed her birds some scratch and table scraps, and maybe a few laying pellets. The elderly man down the road that keeps a single rooster because he misses hearing the roosters crow from his childhood probably feeds his pet rooster some corn, maybe some leftover oatmeal and toast from breakfast and whatever else he decides to throw in there. Your commercial poultry farmers feed their poultry a mixture of grains that are ground up into meal and while the nutrition level is acceptable, the gizzard is not doing what it was intended to do because the food is already ground.
On the other side of the coin, gamefowl enthusiasts take painstaking efforts to custom mix a properly balanced ration. Sparing no expense we add corn, oats, pellets, barley and a hodgepodge of other grains that makes a feed mixture so complex that most of us can’t remember it, we have to carry a piece of paper with the recipe. In addition to this we also give our fowl supplements on a regular basis, whether it be a grape, a few mealworms, a peck or two of tuna, or maybe some crushed boiled egg.
A large percentage of gamefowl enthusiasts are members of the National Poultry Improvement Plan. Voluntarily submitting our fowl to tests so that we can insure that the most dreaded of diseases are not present on our farms. Many of us learn to do post mortem examinations on our fowl so that we can try to get to the bottom of it, should one pass for unexplained reasons. We treat for worms and mites diligently, and clean our pens regularly. In the hottest of weather we water multiple times per day, and in the coldest of weather we brave the weather several times a day to go outside and check our fowl.
Now, in spite of this, we have been blamed for the spread of every disease known to fowl, including Avian Influenza. Presently, if one of us were to find such a disease in our flock, it would be dealt with quickly, if not through NPIP testing, then at least through the fact that we so diligently inspect our flock daily. If we find a problem with our fowl that we don’t recognize, we quickly contact a fellow poultry man, a veterinarian, the local extension office, or maybe post on a forum.
If it were illegal to own gamefowl, all that would change. We could not participate in NPIP for obvious reasons. We could not speak with the county agent about poultry concerns, or a veterinarian for that matter. The gamefowl forums would be less used because so many would part with their fowl, and others would be afraid to admit that they owned gamefowl. In short, we would be forced to take our fowl “underground”.
We would have access to a smaller array of health care needs, such as dietary supplements and antibiotics. Gamecock specific feeds would no longer be marketed. All of this due to the diminished business due to the lower gamefowl population, and the secrecy involved.
The end result would be that gamefowl would no longer be cared for as well as they are today. This, of course, would lead to the current propaganda regarding the spreading of disease, to some extent, becoming truth.
While I don’t agree with the views of animal rights organizations regarding the illegalization of cockfighting, I can at least understand where their beliefs come from. Much of it comes from misconceptions about the sport, and while I know that these are misconceptions, to the uneducated person, they can easily sound like truth. So their lobby for the illegalization is understood by me, but not supported. They, however, don’t plan to stop there.
They have also lobbied for it to be illegal to ship gamefowl across state lines for the purpose of fighting. Again, I can understand this plan, even if I disagree with it. What I cannot understand is why some people believe that shipping any chicken is probable cause to accuse the sending and receiving parties of violating this law. If this is allowed to continue, almost all poultry breeders cease to ship fowl, in fear of trumped up charges. If this happens then the potential income of breeders drops significantly, as does his financial ability to offer his fowl the best care available. Again, I am not only referring to gamefowl here, but all fowl in general.
Of course if these organizations have their way, it will not stop at harassment of people shipping poultry, but will also include interrogation of anyone found transporting poultry in their vehicle. I am waiting for the day that I hear of a roadblock at some state line where police are checking vehicles for contraband chickens.
Another of the goals is to make it illegal to own gamefowl. Maybe they aren’t aware that gamefowl produce meat and eggs just like all other chickens. They may not lay as many eggs per year as a leghorn, but their egg production is certainly adequate. While their feed to meat conversion does not rival that of cornish rock crosses, they do produce a good quality meat. In my opinion, even if cockfighting were abolished throughout the world, gamefowl would still be the ideal breed to own. Meat and egg production are adequate, game hens make the best mothers and are quite broody, they do well on free range because they are athletic enough to escape many predators, they require less feed because they are such efficient foragers, and they are among the most beautiful of breeds known to man.
Animal rights groups want to hear none of this, though. They want gamefowl to be extinct. How can these groups say they are fighting for animal rights, if they are trying to deny gamefowl the right to exist? Of course they deny this goal, but if it is illegal to own them, they cannot survive. Even if they were all released into the wild, the majority of males would kill each other within the first few hours, additionally any man finding a wild flock of gamefowl on his land would hastily kill them, in fear of finding himself behind bars for having them on his land. This would lead to extinction.
On another note, it is their goal to have all dogs and cats spayed or neutered. I would love to hear their explanation of how they expect the species to NOT become extinct if all of them are spayed or neutered. I am guessing that their response would be that not all of them should be spayed or neutered, just most of them, and that if a certain number were left intact, they would be able to provide enough pets for everyone.
So, who will decide which people are to leave their animals intact and corner the market on pets? These people undoubtedly would be able to demand a higher price for their animals, since the supply is so low. This would lead to the breeders becoming wealthy, and only the wealthy being able to afford a pet (translated as people who can afford to make financial contributions to these animal rights group’s). Should it ever be made law that in order to keep a pet intact, a person must have some sort of license to breed dogs or cats, who would decide who gets the licenses and becomes wealthy? I am sure HSUS would be up to the challenge. But what would be the qualifications for the license to breed pets (translated as license to become wealthy)? Would HSUS members and donors be near the top of the list? Would such a situation be in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act? I think it would.
What it boils down to is the almighty dollar. They lobbied for money to make cockfighting illegal but the donations didn’t come in fast enough. Their next step was to write a cockfighting fact sheet that is about as close to the truth as the story about Goldilocks and the three bears, but it pulled heart strings and donations started to flow better. Eventually they saw that they had almost attained their goals of making cockfighting illegal in every state, thus slowing the donations coming from the anti-cockfighting people, so they needed a new plan. This was to lobby for banning of interstate transport of gamecocks for fighting purposes, now that has been accomplished, so they post a $5,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of a cockfighter, just posting this reward, in the minds of some, validates that cockfighting still runs rampant and more donations are needed to fund the rewards. I wonder what their next ploy will be?
I will close this post here, while I know I have only touched the tip of the iceberg on this subject, there is far too much to cover in a single post. We must learn to cooperate, each of us must contribute to our cause, and we must mount a strong offense if we want to stop the hijacking of our culture and our heritage. I offer my plea to each and every one of you to help in this fight for the rights of our noble fowl.
These are my opinions and I am Darren U. Talissen
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