Cock Fighting

The New York Times takes a look at New Mexico's efforts to ban cock-fighting. It seems that they've only had a limited impact. Still, I would that despite the short-term failures, this may have a long-run impact by making it less likely that new New Mexicans (of which there will probably be many in the high-growth southwest) become habituated to the sport.

But should cockfighting really be banned? This doesn't seem like a very nice way to treat animals, I'm skeptical that this is meaningfully worse than the way we treat the chickens we raise for meat and eggs. I'm always interested in where the next "culture wars" will come from after the gay marriage fight is settled and maybe animal rights issues are a plausible candidate.

Meanwhile, if cockfighting's illegal in your jurisdiction but you've got a hankering for some bird-on-bird violence, YouTube's got you covered.