Sacramento, CA — Following the declaration of a state of emergency over bird flu in California, the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action are raising alarms over the public health risks posed by rampant and widespread illegal cockfighting operations, which threaten to spread the disease to California’s enormous commercial poultry flocks and, with the prospect of inter-species spillover, to its vast human population. The organizations have documented the long history of avian diseases spread by cockfighting birds and had previously labeled California as one of the top five worst states for illegal cockfighting, along with Alabama, Hawaii, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.
California has long been a hotspot for cockfighting, with its long border with Mexico, where cockfighting is legal, and its place as a launching point for the Pacific Rim trade in cockfighting birds. Last month, a major Mexican cartel figure involved in cockfighting was arrested in Riverside County. And just this week, the prosecutor’s office in the state of Colima in Mexico reported that one of the three men killed on Sunday afternoon at a cockfight in Manzanillo was a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, underscoring the hazards associated with cockfighting and the organized crime networks that favor the practice.
The recent seizure of 200 fighting birds in Sacramento County is just one small indicator of the vast network of “backyard” flocks that that can be found in all 58 counties in California. California has one of the weakest anti-cockfighting laws in the West, with misdemeanor penalties for an enterprise bound up with cruelty, contagion, and a wide assortment of crimes.
“The U.S. bird flu H5N1 epidemic that began in February 2022 continues unabated,” stated Jim Keen, DVM., PhD, the director of veterinary science for the Center for a Humane Economy. “So far, 124 million poultry have died from bird flu or been culled on 588 commercial poultry farms and 726 ‘backyard’ farms in all 50 states. The virus has also infected at least 866 dairy cattle herds nationwide, and at least 61 poultry and cattle workers. This is the most serious bird flu outbreak in a century.”
The USDA and its Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) euphemistically classify game fowl operations as “backyard poultry.” Based on the fighting breeds present and their distinctive housing, gamefowl farms are easy to identify and cannot be confused with people who raise birds for eggs, meat, or show. “Based on my past experience in responding to avian disease crises on the ground in California, the cockfighting operations play an enormous role in the spread of avian disease in California,” added Dr. Keen. “The USDA has a dangerous history of underplaying the role of the cockfighting industry in the bird flu epidemic, and the agency must provide more detailed information on cockfighting’s role in this crisis so it can be addressed as a law enforcement priority.”
“Federal authorities need to disclose detailed information about the ‘backyard flocks’ that have been infected,” added Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy. “Only when we understand the role of these cockfighting operations can law enforcement and legislators understand the urgency of addressing this vast underground network of illegal animal fighting operations.” The state may have more than a million fighting birds, according to the Center for a Humane Economy.
Ten of the 15 virulent Newcastle Disease (vND) outbreaks in the United States originated from illegally smuggled game fowl for cockfighting, causing major disease epidemics in southern California in 2002-03 and 2018-20. At least 16 million birds died and more than $1 billion (inflation-adjusted numbers) was spent to control vND outbreaks.
More than 15 years ago, the California public health officials identified cockfighting operations as the likely vector for the transmission of the avian influenza, which spread from California into Arizona and Nevada. Before it was contained, state and federal authorities killed 3.2 million birds and spent $170 million. Authorities estimated there were thousands of backyard cockfighting operations in Los Angeles County alone.
In an astonishing circumstance, the state and federal government paid out tens of millions to cockfighters in compensation when their fighting birds were killed after disease outbreaks, enriching cockfighters. Whether or not it’s warranted to make payments to cockfighters during a disease outbreak, it’s best not to have these illegal flocks in the first place. Collectively, they amount to a moral and financial liability for the state.
Gamefowl are high-risk disease vectors and reservoirs because they are widely sold and traded, deliberately mixed under stressful conditions at fighting derbies, reared under poor biosecurity, and have experienced husbandry or fighting practices that spread disease.
Dr. Jim Keen issued a full report on cockfighting and avian diseases that can be read here.