Only in Oklahoma...

[TomJoe]

Cockfighting illegal? Give the chickens boxing gloves...

[livius drusus]

"Let the roosters do what they love to do without getting injured," Shurden said.

Yes, because as everybody knows, gamecocks fight each other out of love for the sport. Why do I get a feeling this is some total bullshit to drum up support for the organizers? Someone should fit me and Mr. Shurden with some spurs and toss us into the pit.

[lisarea]

I have a lot of family in New Mexico, which is one of the only two states (the other's Louisiana) that hasn't outlawed cockfighting. Every so often, someone proposes outlawing it, and the argument is always that cockfighting is an important cultural tradition for Mexican immigrants, so it'd be racist to outlaw it. And not enough people respond with, "Well, that part of your culture sucks, and you don't get to keep it."

I hadn't heard the "God wants cocks to fight" argument before.

[viscousmemories]

Hey genocide is part of German cultural tradition, and we don't let them go around killing people.

[Godless Dave]

Shit, part of my cultural heritage is to jump in a longboat and pillage northern Europe, but no one's advocating legalizing that. They let us keep the lutefisk, though.

[LadyShea]

They had a cockfighting demonstration at a hotel we stayed at in Mexico. Those guys were all "Many think it's cruel but our culture blah blah blah", they use the same thing for bullfighting. I agree lisarea, that part of their culture sucks.

I have to say though, those roosters were itching to fight. Of course they don't do it out of love for it, their brains are tiny, they do it because they are bred for it. Sad.

[wei yau]

Part of my culture is devotion to familial duties even (or especially) at the cost of personal well-being. And wrapping all kinds of animal parts into tiny little dumplings to be served from little steam carts during brunch hours.

They let us keep that, thankfully.