Bakersfield Californian

7/26/03

Crying fowl over compensation

By MARYLEE SHRIDER

In the 10 months since a deadly poultry virus was first found in California, taxpayers have doled out $22.3 million to bird owners, with nearly half of that money going to owners of fighting cocks.

Cockfighting is illegal in California, but that hasn't stopped owners of 80,000 game birds from collecting $9.3 million in compensation for birds destroyed in the battle against exotic Newcastle disease.

But exactly who got all that taxpayer money is impossible to know.

State and federal officials say it's nobody's business.

Officials flatly refused to answer any questions about taxpayer-funded bird compensations when first questioned by The Californian in March. Now, four months and two Freedom of Information Act requests later, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has released a 377-page report listing the types of birds destroyed and compensation paid, but still refuses to identify most of those getting the money.

Taxpayers footing the bill

What is clear in the report, is that owners of game fowl -- any bird trained or bred for cockfighting -- have received about 42 percent of the total compensation paid to California bird owners.

Since exotic Newcastle disease was first discovered in a backyard game-fowl flock in Los Angeles, the virus has made its way into Arizona, Nevada and Texas, costing taxpayers a combined $31 million in compensation payments alone.

Ag officials and animal rights advocates have repeatedly pointed to cockfighting as the likely flash point for the highly contagious virus. Cockfighting is illegal almost everywhere in the United States, but California Department of Food and Agriculture spokesman Larry Cooper said the task force's hands are tied when it comes to the compensation bird owners receive.

It is illegal to fight the birds, Cooper said, but it's perfectly legal to own, breed and show them.

"It's simply not within our regulatory process to determine that those birds are being illegally used," he said. "That cannot be proven until they're raided by a local law enforcement officer. That's not our directive."

Bird prices were established early on by the combined state and federal Exotic Newcastle Disease Task Force. Compensation amounts have ranged from $2 for an egg-laying hen to $1,850 for an exotic double yellow-head parrot. Some game fowl, like roosters and brood hens are valued as high as $500, according to task force pricing rules. Bird owners, Cooper said, are repaid fair market value for their birds, but if they can produce evidence the birds are worth more, the task force must pay that amount.

"They have to provide written documentation to support their contention," he said.

Circular logic

In California, nearly 4 million birds of all types -- from barnyard chickens to exotic white peacocks and golden pheasants -- have been destroyed in a thus far successful effort to keep the virus from spreading north.

Most of the birds destroyed in California, about 3.7 million of them, were layer hens from 27 Southern California commercial egg operations, which shared $10.8 million in compensation -- an average of $2.89 per bird. The names and locations of commercial operations, loosely defined by the task force as "premises with at least 500 birds for the purpose of food production," are included in the USDA report.

All other bird operations, regardless of the number of birds or what they're used for, are considered non-commercial. Citing privacy reasons, officials refused to release the names of non-commercial bird owners despite the eye-popping amounts some have received.

A bird owner in Lancaster, for example, was paid $328,155 for 2,025 birds, all but three of which were game fowl. In Kern County, a Mojave resident got $22,380 for 172 game birds, including roosters, hens and chicks.

Terry Francke, general counsel for the California First Amendment Coalition, said the public has a strong interest in how its tax dollars are spent and the fact that some of the bird owners operate under a residential address does not necessarily mean that the address has a privacy interest.

"By what criteria do they determine these are non-commercial owners? Just the fact they don't hang out a shingle?" Francke said. "The very fact they are being paid extraordinary sums for their birds means that the birds do have some commercial value, so I think we have some circular reasoning here."

Lost birds

Not all bird owners are shy when it comes to talking about their lost birds -- or the money they received for giving them up.

Lydia Paul kept eight chickens, three ducks and one goose in the yard of her Mojave home until April, when she noticed some of the chickens showing signs of exotic Newcastle disease. The symptoms quickly grew worse until the chickens were gasping for air, drowning in their own phlegm. After a call to the task force hot line, ag officials came out to test the birds. The chickens tested positive for the virus, which meant all the birds had to go. Paul received $125 in compensation.

"I had raised all of them and it was hard to let them go, but it was harder to watch them suffocate," she said. "It was horrible. I would have let them take the birds even without the compensation."

Task force officials destroyed a total of 298 birds in the remote rural area of Mojave where Paul lives and, in May, quarantined an area of about 1,387 square miles. It was the first discovery of the virus outside a large quarantined zone in Southern California that included Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Riverside, Orange, San Diego and Imperial counties.

Paul had only kind words for the task force team, which came to her farm clothed in protective white coveralls, bonnets, gloves and boots. The team took the birds away for euthanization, which is generally done by gas, then spray sterilized every inch of Paul's property up to within a few feet of her front door.

"They even sprayed up in the trees because feathers can fly up there," Paul said.

Task force members commiserated with Paul over the loss of her birds, she said, and answered all of her questions. They also left Paul with 10 young sentinel birds to serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine. The chickens' continued survival, Paul was told, would indicate a disease-free yard.

"They said they would take the chickens away after that or I could keep them," said Paul, who has resigned herself to eating store-bought eggs until the birds start laying. "I'm going to keep them."

Task force officials conducted a final test on Paul's chickens on July 2. If the tests come back negative, the quarantine on her property will be lifted and she can remove the warning sign from her front fence.

There was no warning sign to be seen at the small farm just up the road from Paul's place, where nearly all of the 40 or 50 rickety pens built by Pedro Venegas stand empty. Only a few sentinel birds remain in the pens -- slapped-together shelters made from chicken wire, cardboard and scrap lumber.

Venegas, who speaks little English, said through a translator that task force officials destroyed about 100 of his game birds, 30 of them roosters.

Venegas couldn't remember exactly how much he was compensated for his birds, but estimated he received about $180 per rooster -- a pittance of what they're worth, he said.

"It's better than nothing," Venegas said, shrugging. "Some roosters come as high as $1,000. That's the price in the trade magazines."

Venegas, a Mojave resident for 10 years, said he had to keep his birds in separate pens because of their aggressive nature. He said he enjoyed breeding his birds for their "purebred" qualities and never fought them. He felt bad when the birds began showing signs of exotic Newcastle disease and called the task force number, which he got off a flier at a feed store.

The soft-spoken Venegas gazed sadly at the empty cages as he spoke about his lost birds. It will take him four years, he said, to rebuild his flock.

Fighting the cockfighters

Cockfighting generally doesn't get a lot of attention from law enforcement agencies because fighting birds and possession of cockfighting paraphernalia, like the blades that are strapped to the fighting cock's legs, are misdemeanors. Sgt. Ric Yorke, with the Kern County Sheriff's Department Rural Crime Investigation Unit, said clandestine cockfighting operations are notoriously difficult to track and few law enforcement agencies have the manpower to devote to large-scale investigations of misdemeanors.

"When I was a senior deputy in Lamont we occasionally would discover cockfights when we were there investigating something like a noise violation or peace disturbance," he said. "We look for all the crimes being committed, but when it comes to cockfighting, there is usually no one left by the time we get there."

Even if deputies had the resources, Yorke said, locating and raiding cockfighting activities would be a monumental task.

"There's a statewide network of people who buy and sell these birds, so it's going to be a difficult thing to control," he said. "It's good thing that they're looking at passing laws that will limit and make it a felony to transport cockfighting implements. That may help."

Legislation that would authorize felony-level jail time for cockfighting and prohibit the interstate commerce of cockfighting implements is currently before state and federal lawmakers. The anti-cockfighting bill SB 732, which has already been passed by the Senate, would increase the penalty for a second cockfighting offense to a minimum of six months in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.

Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, said the society fully supports the bills as well as an amendment to the 2004 Agriculture Appropriations Act that will secure $800,000 for enforcement of the existing federal animal fighting law. The amendment passed in a House vote July 14, during a debate of the act, which funds the Department of Agriculture.

It's time, Pacelle said, to enforce the laws already in place.

"The law we have now bans any interstate movement of dogs or birds for fighting purposes or any exports or imports of fighting birds or dogs," he said. "It's partly because of the failure to enforce this law that has contributed to the outbreak (of exotic Newcastle disease) and caused an expenditure in excess of $100,000 million."

Pacelle said there is broad support for the bills among animal welfare advocates who are outraged over the large compensations paid to owners of game fowl.

"I'm sure anyone who cares about animals is outraged," he said. "It's enriching individuals who are breaking the law and allowing these people to continue to operate. These people need to be put out of business, not subsidized for their illegal conduct."

Dean Florez, D-Shafter, said he is "very happy" to support the pending legislation and any efforts to reduce cockfighting, but urged his fellow lawmakers to recognize that not all game birds are cockfighters.

"This is a tough nut to crack," said Florez of cockfighting. "It is important that our federal legislators recognize that the Department of Food and Agriculture needs more tools to differentiate between game birds and poultry that will prevent the use of tax dollars to subsidize this illegal activity."

Pacelle did not argue that ownership of fighting birds should remain legal, but said the masquerade that the majority of the birds are used for legitimate purposes should end.

"These are not show birds," he said. "The preponderance of these birds are used for fights."

There are, by some estimates, as many as 50,000 illegal cockfighting locations in California alone. Pacelle said he's not surprised.

"Cockfighters are organized criminals and the only thing that will stop them is a properly enforced law with teeth," he said. "It's rampant and the presence of prohibition is not going to be enough. We have to have meaningful penalties to make these laws work."

Here to stay

Even if the bills pass, some owners of fighting birds say there will be no end to cockfighting, especially among ethnic groups that embrace the sport as a cultural experience.

One local cockfighter, who asked that his name not be used in order to protect his professional standing, said contrary to the misconceptions people have about the sport, cockfighting is not inhumane, but allows the birds to do something their aggressive natures already compel them to do. Enforcement would only result in a tremendous waste of tax dollars, he said.

"No matter how many laws there are against cockfighting, with the number of Hispanics and Filipinos in the state of California, it's here to stay," he said. "So there's now a law that prohibits gamebirds from interstate transports. Do you really think the manpower is going to be wasted at the border to check every vehicle for chickens?"

Joe Rodriguez, a Bakersfield game-bird breeder who sometimes advertises his birds in trade magazines like "Feathered Warrior," said he never fights his birds but understands the thrill of the sport.

"Fighting is in your blood, it's the way you were raised," Rodriguez said. "With all the Hispanics in this county I don't think it will ever stop."

Rodriguez said raising game fowl is a hobby he shares with his sons, who have won awards for their brightly plumed gamebirds at the Kern County Fair. Now, in deference to the Newcastle outbreak, Rodriguez has stopped selling birds and will not until it's safe for him to do so, he said.

Despite the Newcastle outbreak and pending legislation, Rodriguez said he is confident that cockfighting will continue.

"They might be backyard hacks that hold orange grove derbies, but nobody will ever know about those," he said. "It's a close-knit thing, where family members stick together. I think it will be going on for the next 100 years."