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Click here to view his letter to the governor. Bill Maher gets political over the New Mexico cockfighting debate. Click here to view his letter to the governor.
Golden Girls star and Emmy Award-winning actor Rue McClanahan, who helped lobby her home state of Oklahoma to ban cockfighting in 2002, is visiting New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson’s office in Albuquerque in hopes of discussing with him a similar ban, despite the fact that he has refused to answer letters from her—or anyone—on the issue.

New Mexico is one of only two U.S. states that have not outlawed cockfighting. Even though two-thirds of New Mexico’s voters are in favor of a ban, Gov. Richardson has referred to the issue as “below my radar.”

UPDATE: On July 12, 2007, four months after similar legislation passed in New Mexico, Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, signed a bill that will make hers the final American state to ban cockfighting, effective next August. This means that cockfighting will be outlawed throughout the United States by next year.

Congratulations and thanks to all the activists and legislators who have given their precious time over the years to make this a reality!
Cockfighting is a blood sport in which sharp, metal spurs are attached to birds’ legs so that they can literally rip each other apart. Roosters raised for fighting are often confined to tiny cages and tormented to make them aggressive. Cockfighters feed the birds a steady diet of stimulants and blood-clotting drugs to make fights more “exciting” (i.e., bloody). The birds suffer broken wings and legs, punctured lungs, severed spinal cords, and gouged-out eyes. The “lucky” ones die; the survivors are fought again. There is no “victory” for fighting cocks.

“For roosters, fighting is an artificial extension of their natural territorial behavior, an instinct that is common to many species, including humans,” says McClanahan in her letter. “But cockfighting is not natural—equating cockfighting with these natural instincts is akin to calling drive-by shootings an acceptable extension of human territorialism.”

Click here to view Rue’s letter to the governor of New Mexico.

Please take a moment to write Gov. Richardson and ask that he support a ban on blood sports:
The Honorable Bill Richardson
Governor of New Mexico
Office of the Governor
State Capitol, Rm. 400
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-476-2226 (fax)
www.governor.state.nm.us/emailchoice.php?mm=6








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