New law could bleed gamecock breeding businesses
By Will Hoover
Advertiser North Shore Writer
Until May 14, Ed Galiza will have plenty to crow about.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
His two-acre Sunset Beach game fowl farm, one of the larger in the state, features 300 cages lined up neatly between the mountains and the sea. Every coop contains a single brightly colored rooster with warrior ancestry dating back thousands of years.
Ed Galiza runs a game fowl farm on his Sunset Beach property. Galiza and other breeders in Hawai'i face financial disaster when a new law takes effect May 14, making it illegal to ship gamecocks anywhere for the purpose of fighting.
In addition to gamecocks, Galiza has more than 100 chicks warming up in the wings, a high-tech hatchery and an assortment of jittery brood hens scratching at the grass.
"He's got it down to a science," said Galiza's son, Darren, as he eyed his dad's incubator setup, which can delicately rotate dozens of eggs in a precise environment.
But in 16 days Galiza's operation, and those of hundreds of other breeders in the state, could suffer a severe financial hit when a new federal law goes into effect. The new law makes it illegal to ship gamecocks anywhere for the purpose of fighting.
Reaction to the law provides a glimpse into a thriving industry worth millions of dollars in Hawai'i but one that is little known outside of gamecock breeding circles.
Well beyond the blood sport of illegal cockfights that take place in parts of the state is what qualifies as big business, down-home style: thousands of gamecocks exported from Hawai'i every year to Guam, the Philippines, Saipan, Puerto Rico, Mexico and a few remaining holdout locations on the U.S. Mainland where cockfighting is legal.
The demand for fighting birds and the need to constantly fortify bloodlines with stock from diverse gene pools has made Hawai'i a unique and important gamecock breeding crossroads between Asia and Latin America, according to breeders here.
Multimillion-dollar business
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
It's a legal business and a profitable one practiced across the state's rural areas by those who say game birds have been part of their family tradition for generations. Many are mom-and-pop operations with fewer than 100 birds. Others are elaborate enterprises such as Galiza's.
At Galiza's North Shore hatchery, 131 of 160 fertile eggs were hatched in a controlled environment. These hatchlings are 12 days old.
All will be affected by the federal law beginning May 14.
Found in Section 26 of The Animal Welfare Act, the misdemeanor law was signed by President Bush last year as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. Violators face a $15,000 fine and up to a year in jail.
Galiza and his counterparts say that since more than half their sales come from birds shipped out of state, the law could drive a spur through their financial hearts. They also don't feel it's fair that they should be held responsible for what buyers do with their product.
How many rooster suppliers are in the state is unclear. But Annette Lee, president of the Hawai'i Game Breeders Association, said her organization has maintained more than 1,000 members since it began in the mid-1980s. She called gamecock breeding in Hawai'i a multimillion-dollar activity.
Lee said an economic impact survey conducted by her organization several years ago showed that some 1,400 members spend $3.4 million a year on feed, and $4.2 million more on cages, related equipment and incidentals.
In addition, members fork over $1.4 million annually in shipping charges.
Lee said those figures are minimum estimates, since there is more than one breeder organization in the state and many independent breeders aren't affiliated with any association.
Lee's own Ace Gamecock Farm in Waimanalo sells around 400 birds a year at up to $250 each. Like other breeders, Lee said the majority of her sales are shipped out of state. She believes the new law is part of a concerted effort by animal-rights groups to eventually make it illegal to even own a gamecock.
Anticockfighting move
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Wayne Pacelle doesn't deny it. Pacelle, senior vice president of The Humane Society of the United States, fought to have the law passed. He's not shy about stating its intended purpose: to shut down cockfighting bird breeders in Hawai'i and elsewhere.
Types of game birds
Black McCrae
Grey Cavazo
Red Yellow Leg Sweater
Of the various gamecocks in Hawai'i, the three most common are the black, the grey and the red. The quality of the birds has little to do with the color.
He said the law was created to close a loophole in the Animal Welfare Act of 1976 that allowed breeders to ship birds for the purpose of fighting to locations where cockfighting is legal.
"What the amendment to Section 26 did was ban any interstate movement and — this is important — any exports as well," said Pacelle.
"So, if you're in Hawai'i, you're not allowed to ship to Guam, the Philippines, Mexico or to New Mexico, which is one of the states where cockfighting is still legal. The kicker is that, since cockfighting is illegal in Hawai'i, there's not any reason for people to have these birds at this point."
In the past Pacelle said breeders circumvented the law by saying they were shipping breeding stock for use in legal game fowl shows.
"That's all a ruse they use," he said. "The problem is that the show industry is relatively small. The cockfighting industry is huge."
Ripple effect of new law
The name of the game is cockfighting, said Pacelle. The show bird industry is not enough to sustain the gamecock industry. Pacelle said breeders are often participants in cockfights and personally sell their birds at such events.
One such breeder is John "Butch" Cambra of Kahalu'u. Cambra just returned from selling birds in Louisiana, where cockfighting is legal. At the end of the month he will leave for a county in Oklahoma where game fights are legal until courts there sort out jurisdiction issues (voters in Oklahoma recently outlawed cockfighting).
"I run a legal business," said Cambra, who is a building inspector for the state. "My life is going to change big time after May 14 because I ship a lot of chickens. I'd say I make close to $40,000 a year on chicken sales. I put two kids through college on the money I've made from gamecocks. I couldn't have afforded it otherwise."
Cambra said the law will have a negative economic ripple effect in the state. Glenn Yogi, owner of Kaneohe Farm Supplies, is a case in point. Yogi said he does $300,000 a year in gamecock-related sales. That's half his gross revenues.
"I have feed, pens, gloves, ID bands, vitamins, medicine — everything," he said. "The last six customers who walked through the door were here for their chickens. This law is going to devastate my business.
"People are quitting. Going out of the business. Feed sales are going down already."
Elizabeth and Jose Royos of Kane'ohe have been raising game fowl for decades. The couple sells around 300 birds a year at $100 to $200 apiece. Mostly, they sell out of state. They are holding out hope that the United Game Breeders Association, the nation's largest gamecock organization, will launch a successful challenge to the law.
"It would be a total loss if we can't ship roosters," said Elizabeth Royos. "And there are many, many more people like us."
Is law enforceable?
Royos, Cambra and Yogi aren't alone in wondering how the law will differentiate between a rooster that's shipped legally and one that isn't. Halyna Kuheana, president of the Big Island Gamefowl Breeders Association, doesn't think the law is enforceable.
Dave Anderson is in charge of judging for the American Poultry Association — the nation's oldest livestock organization — which hosts hundreds of fowl competitions every year. The shows are comparable to dog shows, and feature hundreds of different breeds of domestic fowl.
Anderson, a California marketing consultant who has judged a number of gamecock shows in Hawai'i, said his organization opposed the law.
"Basically, the law is trying to stop cockfighting," said Anderson, a lifelong show bird hobbiest who said he has no interest fighting gamecocks. "But the problem is, how do they know the difference between a show bird and a fighting bird? The fact is, they're identical."
Pacelle conceded that proving shipped gamecocks are being used for cockfighting is the challenge facing the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It won't be easy, but he said the government is committed to the law and that the USDA is in the process of securing additional money to enforce it.
Meanwhile, The Humane Society of the United States is trying to make things even tougher for game bird breeders. It backs legislation introduced in Congress that, if passed, would make transporting gamecocks for fighting a felony. Violators would face up to two years behind bars.
That legislation is supported by the Hawaiian Humane Society, said Eve Holt, society spokeswoman.
Added Cathy Goeggel, director of research and investigations for Animal Rights Hawai'i, "We support the idea of making the law a felony."
Local breeders find the felony legislation attempt especially troubling.
Lee, who believes such laws are an example of Mainlanders imposing their own morality on Hawai'i's local culture, said if a felony version of the law ever becomes reality, growing gamecocks in Hawai'i will become a thing of the past.
"We're making our own living doing this," said Lee. "Animal groups don't care about that. They'd rather see us all on welfare."
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8038.
