Puerto Rico tries to save cockfighting industry, defying federal government
Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez on Wednesday threw the island’s cockfighting industry a lifeline and set the stage for a legal battle with Washington when she signed a law that aims to block federal prohibition of the bloody, yet longtime cultural tradition.
Speaking in front of the Fortaleza governor’s palace and flanked by Christmas trees, Vázquez said the local legislation is designed to save thousands of jobs that are being put at risk by a federal cockfighting ban that’s due to take effect Friday. Vázquez acknowledged that the local law contradicts the federal measure but she said she wasn’t trying to pick a fight with Washington.
“This measure is not meant to be a confrontation,” she said. “If they [the federal government] understand this as a conflict then we ask them to come talk to us. Let’s talk it through — this is an industry that represents the income for thousands of families and we have to take them into consideration.”
Puerto Rico’s breeding farms and 71 registered cockfighting pits, or galleras, generate some $65 million a year and account for more than 7,200 direct and indirect jobs, according to a report commissioned by the Puerto Rico’s largest cockfighting organization and adopted by the local government.
But the industry has been on life support since President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill making cockfighting illegal in all U.S. territories, including Puerto Rico and Guam, come Dec. 20.
Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory of 3.2 million people, has no vote in the U.S. Congress even as Capitol Hill holds sway over life on the island. And Vázquez accused Washington lawmakers of being out of touch with the island’s reality.
“It’s unfair to sign a law sitting behind a desk…when there are thousands of families that depend on cockfighting here,” she said.
Puerto Rico has been stuck in a decade-long recession and is still recovering from Hurricane Maria in 2017. Cockfighting promoters say hard-hit rural areas depend on the industry to stay afloat. Vázquez said the industry had paid $120,000 in taxes and fees to the government this year, and that some 320,000 people had attended a cockfight this season.
Orlando Vargas, the president of the San Juan Cockfighting Club, celebrated Wednesday’s decision but acknowledged the fight’s not over.
“The signing of this law creates some legal controversy,” he said. “We want it to be the courts that decide whether they [the U.S. Congress] are going to take away our culture. This is an absurd law. They need to understand that this is part of our culture, part of our day-to-day life.”
Animal rights activists say the economic impact of cockfighting is being exaggerated and that there’s no legitimate reason to defend the cruel activity — which forces gamecocks to fight each other, often to death. The Washington, D.C.-based Animal Wellness Foundation this month began offering $2,500 rewards for people who provide information about illegal cockfights.
In a statement, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said it was “reprehensible that as we enter 2020, Puerto Rican officials are seeking to defy not only U.S. federal law but also all modern standards of ethics and compassion by protecting the cruel cockfighting industry.”
Wednesday’s law amends existing cockfighting regulations to make the activity an exclusively domestic affair. Operators won’t be able to export birds, advertise on social media or be part of the larger financial system — measures designed to keep the cockfights from violating interstate commerce laws. By making the activity narrowly domestic, Vázquez argues the federal government loses its rationale for shutting down the industry. She said the case was similar to states where medical and recreational marijuana is allowed despite it being a federal offense.
But it’s unclear if the U.S. government will see it the same way. Earlier this year the Federal Bureau of Investigations said they planned to enforce the cockfighting ban like any other law. Asked if Puerto Rican police would crack down on cockfights come Friday, Vázquez said the issue was moot without local legislation.
A lawyer with deep knowledge of the cockfighting industry and who asked for anonymity to speak candidly, said Wednesday’s law was “more political than legal” and that the island’s government will undoubtedly end up in court.
“There’s no way local law can preempt federal law,” he said.
Vázquez, who became governor in August after Gov. Ricardo Rosselló was driven out of power, announced this week that she would seek reelection in 2020.
Henry Neumann, a member of Puerto Rico’s senate and one of the backers of the new cockfighting law, said Wednesday’s actions were the first in a series of steps to save the industry.
“This is an effort by the governor to let Washington know that we are against the ban,” he said. “This is a first step we’re taking to try to correct one of the biggest and most crass injustices that Washington has taken against this colony, Puerto Rico.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 3:22 PM.
