Fighting birds, fighting words.

Byline: David Steves The Register-Guard

SALEM - Police and animal-rights groups teamed up Thursday to urge lawmakers to crack down on cockfighting, reviving an effort that fell short two years ago.

Calling it a cruel blood sport and a barbaric activity, advocates of House Bill 2086 told the House Judiciary Committee that although Oregon already bans cockfighting, the law needs to be tightened. A loophole allows people to raise birds for such activities by claiming the gamecocks are being reared for fighting elsewhere.

But poultry breeders and an out-of-state expert said the bill was poorly drafted and would treat as criminals people who are raising game fowl for legitimate purposes, such as meat or feather production.

Advocates for the bill said that despite the defeat of a similar measure in the 2001 session, an upcoming change in federal law makes a stronger case this time around. The amendment to the U.S. Animal Welfare Act, which was signed by President Bush and takes effect in May, bans the interstate transport of birds used for cockfighting.

Kelly Peterson, a lobbyist for the Humane Society of the United States, said that undermines the game fowl industry's main argument in the past: that they have a legal right to raise fighting birds, so long as they don't actually fight in Oregon, where the practice is illegal.

"So there's no reason for any Oregonian to possess or breed fighting birds in Oregon, unless they're being used for illicit purposes," she said.

Cockfighting remains legal in two states, Louisiana and New Mexico, and other countries such as Mexico and the Philippines.

The bill was decried by game fowl breeders and the Oregon Farm Bureau as an attack on the entire poultry industry.

Many of the bill's opponents cited the inherent tendency of all poultry to fight.

Barry Bushue, president of the bureau, said his son raises Rhode Island red chickens. He questioned whether police would come to arrest his boy if his roosters or hens were caught fighting.

Mike Baker, a Dorena resident who raises game fowl, said he doesn't use them in illegal fights. He told lawmakers the game-fowl industry is developing special boxing gloves with electronic sensors to be placed on the fighting birds' feet. The sensors could determine which of two birds hits harder, and ultimately which should be declared the winner. The format, he said, eliminates the razor-sharp gaffes and spurs worn by the birds - and thereby addresses concerns of animal cruelty.

Baker said tightening the laws would prevent him and other enthusiasts from developing such an alternative version of cockfighting - something he said was protected by his constitutional right to the pursuit of happiness.

"I feel my human rights are being sacrificed for animal rights," he said. "Come on people, this is only a chicken."

While Lane County authorities say there have been few arrests associated with cockfighting in the area, cockfighting does go on.

Last week, a husband and wife were sentenced to short jail terms and probation on weapons charges stemming from a police raid last summer at their home west of Junction City. The raid turned up several roosters apparently used in cockfighting, a collection of cockfighting equipment, as well as 48 marijuana plants. But prosecutors dropped animal cruelty and cockfighting charges as part of the plea agreement.

In 2001, police arrested a man and discovered what is believed to be an illegal cockfighting operation outside Junction City that included roosters, breeding hens and an indoor arena.

"It's definitely prevalent in Lane County," said Mike Wellington, program manager for the Lane County Animal Regulation Authority. "It does happen, but due to our lack of resources, it's hard to be able to investigate it."

Woodburn police detective Jason Alexander described finding about 100 roosters tied down on 2- to 3-foot leashes behind a house when investigating a report last July of fighting birds, drugs and stolen property at a rural Marion County residence. Alexander said several of the birds carried the tell-tale signs of fighting: Many were scarred and had patches of feathers shaved off so wounds could be treated. In addition, the birds' crests, wattles and earlobes had been removed. This was to deny other birds something to grab onto in order to shove into them a spur or gaffe.

Francine Bradley, a professor with the University of California, Davis, poultry sciences department, later testified that the detective's reference to removal of a rooster's body parts as an indication it has been used for cockfighting points to one of the bill's weakness: It is so broadly worded that a chicken owner could be wrongly accused of raising birds for cockfighting. She said poultry farmers commonly trim waddles, crests and ear lobes for reasons other than preparing them for fights.

Bradley said the bill's heightened penalties for cockfighting - up to five years in prison and fines of up to $100,000 - would drive hobby farmers underground. And that, she said, would make it more difficult for disease control officials to detect and treat infections that could spread through Oregon's poultry populations.

Rep. Lane Shetterly, R-Dallas, questioned opponents' assertions that the bill would make law-abiding poultry growers targets for police. He said the proposed changes would be similar to Oregon's 1987 law outlawing dog fighting. And he said the types of unintended consequences described by opponents have never beset Oregon's law-abiding dog breeders.

Rebecca Nolan contributed to this report.