(Beth Clifton collage)
Despite recent cockpit murders, only 12 of 76 Hawaii state legislators favor making cockfighting a felony and enforcing the law
HILO, Hawaii––Arriving from Japan at age eight with her mother, as penniless immigrants soon after World War II, Mazie Hirono, 76, serving since 2013 as one of the two U.S. Senators from Hawaii, knows she did not win election on the redneck vote.
Therefore Hirono on December 8, 2023 had little evident hesitation about endorsing the Fighting Inhumane Gambling & High-Risk Trafficking Act, House Resolution 2742, meant to reinforce U.S. federal legislation against cockfighting and dogfighting.
Hirono is so far the only Hawaiian member of Congress to endorse HR 2742, called the FIGHT Act for short.
Surveyed by Honolulu Civil Beat survey in May 2023, only 12 of 76 state-level legislators replied “yes” when asked, “Should Hawaii make cockfighting a felony crime, and should the law be strongly enforced?”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Cockpit killings
That, and the introduction of HR 2742, both closely followed shootings shortly after midnight on April 15, 2023 that killed two attendees at a Maili cockfight, wounding three others.
Sixteen-year-old Shaedan-Styles McEnroe-Keaulii was in September 2023 indicted as an adult for second-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder, three counts of second-degree attempted murder, five counts of carrying a firearm in the commission of a felony, and one count of keeping a firearm in an improper place.
A second suspect, Jacob Borge, 23, was charged with first- and second-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and firearms-related charges, reported Jack Truesdale for Honolulu Civil Beat.
Wrote Truesdale, “The shooting highlighted an ongoing lack of enforcement against cockfighting contests that, given the large amounts of money changing hands, often attract other forms of illegality, including drugs and guns. Cockfighting is a relatively low-level offense in state law, which proves hard to enforce and carries minor penalties.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Hawaii is at the center of cockfighting in the Pacific rim”
Elaborated Animal Wellness Action president Wayne Pacelle in letters to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and Honolulu Advertiser, “Illegal animal fighting is almost always bound up with illegal gambling, money laundering, narcotics trafficking, and other crimes.
“Hawaii is at the center of the cockfighting trade in the Pacific Rim, with fighting birds shipped from the state to the Philippines, Vietnam, Guam and the Northern Marianas islands,” Pacelle reminded.
“Cockfighting derbies occur regularly and typically with impunity in Hawaii,” Pacelle said, “because Hawaii has lax state laws against cockfighting, and the federal anti-animal-fighting law is not actively enforced on the islands.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Are you here for the cockfighting?”
Pacelle made most of the same points days earlier in media statements responding to the conviction of Grand Bay, Alabama cockfighting venue owner Darrel Zemon Jackson, 64, for misdemeanor cruelty to animals.
Jackson, who according to Mobile County sheriff’s deputy Lonnie Parsons admitted to making $200 for each cockfight held on his land, was fined $2,000.
Parsons testified, reported Brendan Kirby for WALA television in Mobile, that Jackson met the sheriff’s deputies who arrested him “at the gate and asked, essentially, ‘Are you here for the cockfighting?’”
Recounted Kirby, “The officers were not undercover, Parsons said; they were uniformed deputies. He said when they were escorted to the back of the property, they found 80-some people, many of whom took off running. He said deputies detained almost 50 people,” impounding 63 gamecocks.
(Beth Clifton collage)
$50 fine is the max for cockfighting in Alabama
“Prosecutors dropped cockfighting charges against several defendants because of insufficient evidence,” Kirby continued. “A couple of others pleaded guilty to misdemeanor gambling charges.”
The second-highest penalty in the case was a $500 fine for gambling levied against Tom Ngo, 63, of Gulfport.
Nine others, seven of them with Vietnamese surnames and six from out of state, pleaded guilty to cockfighting earlier, and were fined $50 apiece.
“That $50 fine was the maximum under the law,” Kirby said.
Parsons told the low maximum fine was what attracted the cockfighters from out of state.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“There’s no crime, essentially”
“There’s no crime, essentially,” Parsons said. “They came here because it’s so lenient that they can go back home and not have to worry about anything.”
Said Pacelle, “The perpetrators of this crime got the equivalent of a minor parking ticket because Alabama has the nation’s weakest anti-cockfighting law.
“Alabama’s anti-cockfighting law was weak in 1896 when it was adopted the year William McKinley was elected as U.S. President,” Pacelle continued.
“Alabama’s anti-cockfighting law hasn’t been upgraded in 127 years, but Alabama’s dogfighting law and the animal fighting laws in every other state have been upgraded.”
(Beth Clifton collage)
Tippah County sheriff again ignores a cockfight
Current Alabama law, Pacelle pointed out, “provides no mechanism for arresting participants who breed fighting animals, traffic in cockfighting knives and gaffs, or are present as spectators. All modern anti-cockfighting laws include these provisions.
“Federal law provides for felony-level penalties, as do about 45 states, including Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Louisiana.”
Mississippi, neighboring Alabama, is among the exceptions. This apparently encouraged Tippah County, Mississippi sheriff Karl Gaillard to again ignore a scheduled cockfight on December 16, 2023, despite having been tipped off to it by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“US Gamefowl Commission”
About 30 people on December 9, 2023 attended a “US Gamefowl Commission” organizing meeting in Floyd County, Kentucky.
The “US Gamefowl Commission,” a misleadingly named non-governmental organization, modeled after the Oklahoma Gamefowl Commission, claims as founding board members Anthony Devore, currently charged with felony cockfighting in Oklahoma; Blake Pearce of Oklahoma, who reportedly escorted Oklahoma state representative Tammy Townley (R-Ardmore) to the 2023 Oklahoma House Speaker’s Ball; Glee Sifuentes, believed to be a nurse practitioner from Versailles, Kentucky; James Sylvester, of Hazel Green, Alabama; Winterhawk Grimmet, of Bunch, Oklahoma; Charlie Ibele, of Biloxi, Mississippi; Rick Grivetti, of Richwoods, Missouri; Casey Lott, of Westgreen, Georgia; and former boxer Roy Jones Jr., of Pensacola, Florida.
Roy Jones Jr. (right) at “US Gamefowl Commission” meeting.
Roy Jones Jr.: big-time loser
Neither Roy Jones Jr., 54, with a professional boxing record of 66 wins, 47 by knockout, against just 10 defeats, nor his father, Big Roy Jones, also a former boxer, have ever made a secret of their involvement in cockfighting.
Roy Jones Jr. also appears to make no secret of involvement in dogfighting.
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness on December 18, 2023 posted a video documenting some of Jones Jr.’s animal fighting activity, pledging to make every effort in the coming year to bring him to justice: https://youtu.be/noFkBJcowBo
Beth & Merritt Clifton.
The “US Gamefowl Commission,” meanwhile, claims to be pursuing legislation to legalize or at least weaken the penalties against cockfighting in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma.
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