Bill would doom cockfighting in Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, La., June 26 (UPI) -- Louisiana is expected to adopt a phase-out of cockfighting under a bill approved by the state Senate.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco was expected to sign the measure that would ban gambling on cockfights beginning Aug. 15 but allow the bird battles themselves to continue for another year.

The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune said Tuesday that the senators passed the phase-out language rather than risk having it die altogether in a compromise committee with the Legislature's session coming to a close.

Louisiana is the last state in the United States to ban cockfighting. Backers of the bill say banning gambling will take a lot of the steam out of cockfighting.