USPS Explained to to Crack Down on Mail-Order Fight Roosters

Posted on: January 5, 2022, 03:52h. 

Final current on: January 5, 2022, 04:14h.

Philip Conneller

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Thousands of roosters destined for cockfighting rings are remaining transported abroad from the US every single calendar year, in accordance to Animal Wellness Motion (AWA).

Congress is urging the US Postal Service to pay out more heed to the nearly 20-calendar year ban on the interstate and foreign transportation of animals for battling needs.

Washington DC-primarily based AWA examined live animal shipping records catalogued by the Guam Division of Agriculture (GDOA). It observed that the Pacific island, a US Territory, experienced obtained 10,000 roosters from the mainland US in the earlier 4 yrs. All experienced been shipped through USPS.

“It is shocking to place dwell animals in a box with no food or drinking water and send out them on a extensive, multi-flight journey – in some cases an 8000-mile journey from North Carolina to Guam – to close up in a cockfight,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Motion. “We are not confident what is even worse, the flight or the combat.”

Angry Birds

Cockfighting bouts contain spectators inserting bets whilst the birds fight to the loss of life with hooked razors, recognised as “gaffs” or “slashers,” hooked up to their talons. The birds are occasionally injected with steroids to boost preventing probable.

The blood activity is prohibited in 50 states, but was authorized in Guam and other cockfighting hotspots, these kinds of as Puerto Rico, until finally previous month. Congress amended the Animal Welfare Act to involve all US Territories in late 2020, offering all US Territories 12 months to comply.

We need to have to cease the cargo of animals for combating uses by using the US Submit Support,” claimed Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC). “This barbaric and cruel apply desires even more investigation and those accountable want to be held accountable.

“I urge the US Postal Inspection Service to operate additional aggressively to interdict unlawful trafficking of preventing animals through US mail,” she extra.

Cockfighting stays lawful and culturally approved in considerably of Latin America, whilst some countries have guidelines against gambling on the blood activity.

In the meantime, pockets of illegal cockfighting persist in the US, specifically in rural regions.

The AWA investigation discovered that Oklahoma was the biggest exporter of roosters to Guam, adopted by rural areas of California.

Time to Deliver  

A bipartisan group of 36 Congressmen and gals have sent a letter to Main Postal Inspector Gary Barksdale demanding the USPS build a complete technique to detect rooster trafficking, specially to Guam.

This ought to consist of “detailed programs on how it will end unlawful trafficking of animals for battling purposes, and what obstacles it faces in executing so,” the lawmakers reported.

Barksdale will be expected to report to Congress on the specifics of that system, so let us hope the letter arrived in a timely manner.