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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Environment - "Limits on LA Roosters Get a Green Light"

Supplementing our informative entry from Sept. 15th headed "'Chicken underground' emerges in Indiana", the NY Times published this story Sept. 16th about a draft ordinance to limit roosters in Los Angeles. Rebecca Cathcart reported:

The [Los Angeles City] Council’s Public Safety Committee on Monday passed a draft of the ordinance that would prevent people within city limits from keeping more than one rooster on their properties. Birds with roles in film and television shoots, or starring in educational exhibits like petting zoos, would be exempt with the proper permits, according to the draft. The full Council will vote on the ordinance on Tuesday. An older draft of the legislation was introduced in 2007, but required review by multiple city agencies. In the interim, all have signed off, and lawmakers expect the ban to pass.

“In limiting the number of roosters on any one property,” the draft ordinance states, “the city wishes to balance the desires of individuals to keep roosters with the rights of their neighbors to live in peace and tranquillity.”

The draft ordinance allows people with several roosters to keep up to three as pets, barring complaints from neighbors.

But it seems there is a dark side to this story -- sometimes an LA rooster is more than a pet or a stage and screen star ... The story continues:
But in Los Angeles, said Detective Susan Brumagin, who oversees the Animal Cruelty Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, the desire to keep roosters is rarely rooted in a love of unusual pets.

“That’d be naïve,” Detective Brumagin said.

“These are cockfighting operations,” in which birds shred each other for sport and illegal gambling draws “tens of thousands of dollars,” she said, adding that in two and a half years, she has “investigated 200 cockfighting operations.” In addition to noise, filth and violence, she said, “often prostitution is going on, and narcotics are sold” at fights in neighborhoods where local gangs get a cut of the profits.

While big cockfighting operations — some with “about 900 birds,” Detective Brumagin said — exist mostly in the hills and valleys far beyond the city center, “there are yards just east of downtown that have 40, 50 and 60 birds.”

“The cacophony of sounds that emanates from that drives neighbors to complain,” the detective said, “and even to sell their properties and move.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 20, 2009 04:31 PM
Posted to Environment