Puerto Rico Defies Congress on Cockfighting Ban

For Puerto Rico’s cockfighting enthusiasts, Dec. 20 has loomed as the day when a federal ban of the practice would take effect, forcing them to shut down their lucrative industry or drive it into the shadows.

On Wednesday, Gov. Wanda Vázquez of Puerto Rico promised a reprieve: She signed a bill that keeps cockfighting legal under the island’s laws, in defiance of the ban enacted last year by Congress and President Donald Trump.

“What worries me most is abandoning these people,” Vázquez said during a signing ceremony about the families who rely on cockfighting to survive. “They don’t have work. They don’t have a livelihood. They can’t pay their bills or sustain their children.”

Some in the commonwealth had seen the federal ban as a violation of Puerto Ricans’ right to rule themselves and protect their cultural heritage.

The governor denied that her administration was taking on the federal government, arguing that the Puerto Rican legislation complied with federal law because it prohibits importing or exporting gamecocks. But in nearly the same breath, Vázquez acknowledged that the law she signed was likely to be challenged.

“Obviously, the final decision belongs to the court,” she said.

Cockfighting has existed in Puerto Rico for some 400 years, since Spanish colonists brought the practice to the island. When Puerto Rico became part of the United States, cockfighting was outlawed. It was legalized again in 1933 and has been regulated ever since, with 71 licensed cockpits across the island of 3.2 million people.

Vázquez said the industry brought more than $9 million into government coffers during the past year, when more than 67,000 matchups were held.

But cockfighting is often deadly for the birds. Denounced as cruel by critics, it has been banned in all states since 2008. A loophole in federal law kept the prohibition from applying to U.S. territories and commonwealths until it was closed by the 2018 farm bill, which included a one-year grace period.

Washington imposed the ban with little input from Puerto Rico, which had not seen any organized campaign against cockfighting. Members of the industry, in contrast, have marched several times on Puerto Rico’s Capitol, with roosters under their arms, to protest the prohibition.

The last-ditch attempt to save cockfighting comes after the industry failed to overturn the prohibition earlier this year. A federal judge in San Juan, the capital, upheld the ban in October, saying that Congress has the power to legislate over the territories. The industry appealed the ruling this month.

“This latest legislative action is a showmanship effort by politicians,” said Wayne Pacelle, founder of Animal Wellness Action in Washington, which opposes cockfighting and is offering cash rewards of $2,500 to tipsters who help federal authorities enforce the ban. “They have no authority to subvert the federal government’s legislative action to forbid animal fighting.”

But left with no other options, members of the Puerto Rico Legislature did what they could do to at least buy the industry some time, said Rep. Gabriel Rodríguez Aguiló, one of the bill’s co-authors. Like the governor, he is a member of the island’s ruling New Progressive Party, which supports Puerto Rican statehood.

“We are using all of the tools at our disposal in this case at the legislative level to ensure that the tradition and industry in Puerto Rico continue,” he said.

Lawmakers have asked Congress for a five-year period to wind down cockfighting. Vázquez, who announced this week that she would run for governor next year, called for “dialogue” with federal authorities.

In the meantime, people like Hiram Figueroa, 70, who has raised and trained gamecocks since he was 16, said he was thrilled to have a respite of any sort.

“I hadn’t been sleeping,” he said. “I’m calmer now. We can keep playing the birds.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .