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Thursday, January 30, 2003
Cockfighting Targeted Again
Journal Capitol Bureau
SANTA FE New Mexico would join most other states in having a statewide ban on cockfighting under a bill introduced in the Senate, with bipartisan support, by Sen. Steve Komadina, R-Corrales.
The bill (SB 64) would make sponsoring, arranging, holding or participating in cockfighting a fourth-degree felony, as dog-fighting now is in New Mexico.
New Mexico and Louisiana are the only two states to still allow the controversial blood sport of cockfighting, although a court challenge is pending in Oklahoma. A number of New Mexico municipalities already have cockfighting bans.
Two years ago, measures to ban cockfighting failed to pass the Legislature.