Outlaw cockfighting

Under news shorts in the November 29 issue of the Hook [“Dogfight: Locals enabled Vick indictments”], Delegate Rob Bell is quoted as saying, “You don’t have to be an animal rights activist to find [dogfighting] absolutely repulsive” and “This kind of animal cruelty has to be stopped.”

If that’s truly how Bell feels, I don’t understand why he didn’t pass a law that made cock fighting illegal as well.

All animals feel pain, and it’s just as wrong for people to attach razor blades to the legs of roosters to tear each other apart as it is for them to set dogs upon one another. Such blood sports are an abomination. A legislator who is sincerely compassionate would have passed a law to put an end to all of them– period.

Bell seems to quickly sponsor legislation being pushed by a large number of people, as if his true impetus is the thought of gaining votes for the next time around. The dogfighting legislation is a case in point. Plenty of folks were complaining about dogfighting, so Bell worked to get a bill passed for them.

Sadly, the outcry against cockfighting was not as loud, and, in fact, it was reported in the media that a group of folks made the trip to Richmond to persuade legislators that cockfighting should not be a part of this legislation. Not too surprisingly, our supposedly caring lawmakers bowed to their wishes.

I hope folks with a genuine compassion for animals will contact Bell to let him know how disgraceful it is for Virginia to allow cockfighting.