Controversial animal-rights figure says N.M. is hub for cockfighting
While many politicians ducked for cover, three celebrities played a part in outlawing cockfighting in New Mexico. Model and actor Pamela Anderson sent a stern letter to then-Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, who for years was indifferent about roosters fighting to the death for human entertainment. Anderson told Richardson to take a stand for the birds.
“The whole country is watching, especially Hollywood, which your office actively courts for the film business,” Anderson wrote to the governor.
Comedian Jay Leno, who was host of The Tonight Show, had a bigger platform.
He condemned Richardson in a memorable monologue.
“Governor Bill Richardson said he is still undecided about cockfighting. … He said there are arguments on both sides. Really? What is the good argument for cockfighters? Does this keep the roosters off the street?”
And Wayne Pacelle traveled to New Mexico to lobby lawmakers and the governor to end cockfighting. You might not remember Pacelle, who’s not as well known as Anderson or Leno.
But as president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, Pacelle had political clout. He resigned from his position with the humane society in 2018 amid allegations he sexually harassed female subordinates.
Now Pacelle is back in the public arena as president of a newer advocacy organization, Animal Wellness Action.
His Washington-based group recently called New
Mexico a “hub” of cockfighting. Pacelle’s assessment comes 14 years after Richardson signed a bill outlawing the bloody events.
“The Land of Enchantment is still peppered with gamecock farms, animal fighters and a brisk trade of fighting animals to Mexico,” Pacelle’s organization stated in what it billed as an investigative report.
Animal Wellness Action listed 10 New Mexicans supposedly “involved in the cockfighting industry.” The organization said they might operate seven “game farms” — three of them in Chaves County.
The claims came as a surprise to Mike Herrington. He is the sheriff of Chaves County.
“I have had nobody contact me about any cockfighting rings, and I get contacted about everything,” Herrington said in an interview.
Most police officers receive tips about shadowy figures committing crimes of all sorts. Good cops like Herrington check out the leads.
“I’m a stickler on this. I take it seriously,” he said of animal cruelty allegations.
Herrington has been sheriff for three years, but he has been a member of the sheriff’s department for more than a quarter-century.
He said illegal horse races and rodeos are far more prevalent in Chaves County than cockfighting. Horses and bulls often are drugged to enhance their speed and strength — abuse that can kill them, Herrington said.
As for cockfighting, Herrington’s department has jurisdiction for at least two of the three Chaves County residents identified in Animal Wellness Action’s report.
The sheriff said he didn’t know either person but would look into the information Pacelle’s organization published.
Animal Wellness Action identified its third suspect in Chaves County only as “J. Ramirez,” and it had no street address for this person. So common is the first initial and last name that it could apply to hundreds of people.
Herrington says one cockfight is one too many. His department received two complaints that helped his deputies stop cockfights before they could start. One case was in 2017, and the other occurred last year.
Herrington’s staff found combat pits and other evidence of planned cockfights at rural outposts.
“There was no evidence of a cockfight going on. We ended up citing a lot of people, 18 to 20 years old, for underage drinking,” Herrington said.
Pacelle’s agency in its report stated it had evidence of other cockfighting operations in Bernalillo, Eddy and Lea counties.
Marty Irby, executive director of Animal Wellness Action, did not respond to questions about whether the organization had alerted police and sheriff’s departments about potential cockfighting rings as it compiled the report.
New Mexico isn’t the only state Pacelle has described as a hub of cockfighting. In 2020, Pacelle called Kentucky “a breeding ground for the global cockfighting industry,” and he said Hawaii was “becoming the game fowl farm to the cockfighting world globally.”
Another political figure made similar claims about New Mexico after cockfighting was outlawed.
Then-state Attorney General Gary King, a Democrat, formed an Animal Cruelty Task Force that raided several Hispanic ranches, claiming they were sites for cockfighting.
King’s tactics proved heavyhanded and entangled him in scandal.
During the most notorious raid, King’s task force deployed 28 law enforcement officers, a veterinarian with sodium pentobarbital and a sheriff’s helicopter to swoop down on a ranch in San Juan County. They found no cockfighting, but King’s raiders still used the drug to kill 700 roosters, chicks and hens, claiming the “fighting birds” might have been raised on steroids that could contaminate the food chain. King’s task force killed hundreds more chickens in other raids where no cockfighting was found.
Marcy Britton, an animal rights activist from Albuquerque, heard of King’s operation and set out to expose it. She filed open-records requests for all emails involving his Animal Cruelty Task Force.
Probably fearing political embarrassment, King withheld hundreds of emails. His successor as attorney general, Hector Balderas, agreed in 2019 to a $265,000 legal settlement with Britton.
King’s operation killed more birds than cockfighters did, all in the name of preventing animal cruelty.