The Humane Society of the United States Calls for Kentucky Car Dealership to Shut Down Promotion Supporting Criminal Activities; Lexington Area Toyota Dealership Promoting and Funding Cockfighting Group

3/25/2004

From: Karen L. Allanach of the Humane Society of the United States, 301-548-7778 or kallanach@hsus.org, Web site: http://www.hsus.org

WASHINGTON, March 25 -- Today, The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) strongly criticized Toyota on Nicholasville (located near Lexington, Ky.) -- a car dealer that brands itself as the largest Toyota truck center in the Midwest -- for helping to fund a group that has a history of involvement in organizing criminal cockfighting activities in Kentucky. The HSUS sent an e-mail alert to tens of thousands of its members today calling on Toyota national headquarters to stop this dealer from funding cockfighting activities.

A newspaper ad in the cockfighing trade magazine, The Feathered Warrior, this month boasts a financial incentive for auto buyers who are members of the Kentucky United Gamefowl Breeders Association (KYGBA). Members get a $500 discount on a car or truck purchase and Toyota on Nicholasville is donating $100 to the UGBA for each car or truck sold.

"The KYGBA is a group of cockfighters that has a record of promoting the inhumane and barbaric practice of instigated animal fighting -- a practice that is illegal under Kentucky law," states Wayne Pacelle, a senior vice president of The Humane Society of the United States. "It is outrageous and unethical for this Toyota dealer to raise money for this network of cockfighters. This promotion should be halted today."

In recent years, The HSUS in the past has written to the Kentucky Attorney General over the KYGBA's "unmistakable and blatant violation of Kentucky's prohibition against cockfighting activities."

Not long after The HSUS wrote the Attorney General about KYGBA's organizing of cockfighting events, the Congress passed a federal law to ban any interstate transport and export of fighting birds. This provision took effect in May 2003.

Cockfighting is illegal in Kentucky, as it is in 47 other states. The Kentucky Court of Appeals affirmed that cockfighting is illegal in Munn v. Commonwealth of Kentucky, 889 S.W.2d 49 (1994). There, the Kentucky court held: "it is clear that in 1974 our state legislature specifically criminalized the practice of cockfighting."

"With a state prohibition on cockfighting, and a federal ban on interstate transport and export, there is no legitimate reason for anyone to have fighting birds in Kentucky," Pacelle said. "The KYGBA is a cockfighting group masquerading as a group of individuals interested in game fowl."

In cockfights, handlers pit specially bred roosters against each other in a contest that almost always includes illegal gambling. "It is a barbaric and inhumane practice in which birds are bred for aggression, pumped up with stimulants and blood- clotting drugs and placed in a pit to fight to the death," Pacelle said.

To enhance the bloodletting, cockfighters strap knives or curved ice picks known as gaffs to the birds' legs. During a bout, birds suffer punctured lungs, gouged eyes, broken bones and other grievous injuries. Both birds often die in the fight. "It is all done for the amusement and illegal wagering of spectators," Pacelle adds. Busts of animal fights routinely turn up evidence of illegal gambling, narcotics and other criminal activity.

The HSUS is the nation's largest animal protection organization with over eight million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals and equine protection, wildlife and habitat protection, animals in research and farm animals and sustainable agriculture. The HSUS protects all animals through legislation, litigation, investigation, education, advocacy and fieldwork. The non-profit organization, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2004, is based in Washington, DC and has 10 regional offices across the country.