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<\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n SACRAMENTO,\u00a0 California<\/strong>\u2013\u2013California state assembly member Chris Rogers,\u00a0 a Democrat from Ukiah,\u00a0 might have imagined his anti-cockfighting bill,\u00a0 AB 928,\u00a0 would easily clear the state senate appropriations committee on August 3,\u00a0 2026 and advance to passage.<\/p>\n AB 928,\u00a0 written to limit to 25 the number of tethered roosters anyone could keep on a single property,\u00a0 had already cleared the state assembly on June 4,\u00a0 2025,\u00a0 by a margin of 46-15.<\/p>\n AB 928 had also cleared the California state senate judiciary committee on June 22,\u00a0 2026,\u00a0 by a vote of 7-2.<\/p>\n <\/a> California senators Sabrina Cervantes and Kelly Seyarto.<\/strong><\/em> Referred by the judiciary committee the next day to the appropriations committee,\u00a0 AB 928 next came before five Democrats,\u00a0 including committee chair Sabrina Cervantes,\u00a0 from Riverside County,\u00a0 and only two Republicans,\u00a0 led by committee vice chair Kelly Seyarto,\u00a0 representing parts of Riverside, \u00a0San Bernardino, \u00a0and Orange counties.<\/p>\n Both Cervantes and Seyarto should have been familiar with the drug-related havoc,\u00a0 including murder, associated with cockfighting in their districts.\u00a0 Cervantes and Seyarto should also have been well aware of the catastrophic effects of Newcastle disease,\u00a0 spread primarily by cockfighters,\u00a0 on the poultry industries of their districts.<\/p>\n (See Disease linked to cockfighting menaces California poultry industry<\/a>.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/a> California senators Aisha Wahab & Christopher Cabaldon.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em>(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Fellow California senate appropriations committee member Christopher L. Cabaldon,\u00a0 the first Filipino-American senator in California history,\u00a0 \u00a0was previously the longest serving mayor of West Sacramento ever,\u00a0 serving from 1998 to 2020.<\/p>\n Cabaldon should have had a comparable level of awareness,\u00a0 because crime and disease linked to cockfighting occurred in West Sacramento during his mayoral tenure.<\/p>\n Another California senate appropriations committee member,\u00a0 Aisha Wahab,\u00a0 the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California state senate,\u00a0 should have known that Mohammed himself forbade any form of animal fighting.<\/p>\n The other three California senate appropriations committee members,\u00a0 Megan Dahle,\u00a0 a Republican,\u00a0 and Tim Grayson and Laura Richardson,\u00a0 both Democrats,\u00a0 might not have been as familiar with the societal harm done by cockfighting as Cervantes,\u00a0 Seyarto,\u00a0 Cabaldon,\u00a0 and Wahab might have been expected to be.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>But the majority of the California state senate appropriations committee should not have groveled as they did on August 3,\u00a0 2026,\u00a0 killing AB 928 after \u201cHundreds of people came to Sacramento from across the state to oppose the bill,\u201d\u00a0 summarized Naomi Taxay for the Sacramento Bee. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMany of their concerns focused on how the bill would affect their livelihoods or cultural practices,\u201d\u00a0 Taxay continued,\u00a0 noting that AB 928 \u201cincluded exemptions for several non-cockfighting purposes, \u00a0including food production, \u00a0educational programs, \u00a0animal shelters and exhibitions.<\/p>\n \u201cAccording to the primary opposition group,\u201d\u00a0 Taxay explained,\u00a0 \u201cthe California Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl, \u00a090% of game fowl breeders are Latino. \u00a0During the senate appropriations hearing on August 3, \u00a02026, \u00a0opponents wore shirts with the phrase \u2018Stop targeting minorities.’\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n About 41% of California residents are Latino,\u00a0 as are more than half of the constituents in Riverside County.<\/p>\n Among 773 recent arrestees for alleged cockfighting activity,\u00a0 logged from law enforcement reports and news accounts by\u00a0ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> in 2025, \u00a063% had Spanish surnames.<\/p>\n But a presumption that because the participants in a particular criminal activity are predominantly of one ethnicity,\u00a0 that the criminal activity is part of the cultural heritage of the ethnicity is racist on the very face of it.<\/p>\n Such an argument could be used to defend the Sicilian mafia,\u00a0 for instance,\u00a0 or Colombian cocaine cartels,\u00a0 or the Ku Klux Klan.<\/p>\n Often,\u00a0 though not always,\u00a0 the victims of the crime in question are also predominantly of the same ethnicity as the criminals.\u00a0 For example,\u00a0 of the most recent 90 victims of murders associated with cockfighting of whom ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong> has record,\u00a0 89% were Latino.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n California has had more than 150 years of experience with this sort of thing,\u00a0 albeit that the history seems to have been unknown to the seven members of the California state senate appropriations committee.<\/p>\n Just a little more than 150 years ago,\u00a0 opium dens plagued the inner city Chinatowns of San Francisco, \u00a0San Diego,\u00a0 and Los Angeles,\u00a0 protected by criminal gangs called \u201ctongs.\u201d<\/p>\n The victims of opium addiction were primarily Chinese immigrants and their families,\u00a0 including women driven into prostitution,\u00a0 but little or nothing was done to fight the opium trade until photographs were distributed of addicted Caucasian women.<\/p>\n Then,\u00a0 \u201cDriven by anti-Chinese xenophobia,\u00a0 San Francisco passed the nation\u2019s first anti-drug law\u2014the Opium Den Ordinance\u2014in 1875,\u201d\u00a0 Google AI tells us.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Despite the Opium Den Ordinance,\u00a0 opium dens persisted,\u00a0 and were even promoted in San Francisco as a tourist attraction,\u00a0 as cockfighting was until recently in Louisiana,\u00a0 Hawaii,\u00a0 and Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n Then the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed most of Chinatown,\u00a0 and indeed destroyed most of San Francisco.<\/p>\n The rebuilt Chinatown,\u00a0 largely without opium dens,\u00a0 has never been as prosperous on the whole as most of the rest of San Francisco,\u00a0 but San Francisco post-1906 has been continuously among the most prosperous U.S. cities,\u00a0 ranking first in affluence since 2022.<\/p>\n San Francisco prosperity,\u00a0 ironically,\u00a0 has in recent years been threatened only by resurgent drug-related crime.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Meanwhile in Sacramento,\u00a0 Taxay of the Bee <\/em>recalled that,\u00a0 \u201cAlthough cockfighting is illegal under both federal and state law, \u00a0California has been the site of some of the nation\u2019s largest cockfighting busts. \u00a0In 2017, \u00a0deputies seized approximately 7,000 birds in Southern California. \u00a0As recently as February, \u00a0a months-long investigation led to the recovery of more than 800 birds in Santa Rosa.\u201d<\/p>\n And on August 9,\u00a0 2026,\u00a0 less than a week after the California senate appropriations committee killed AB 928, \u00a0the sheriff\u2019s office in Tulare County,\u00a0 California arrested four alleged cockfighters in a Sunday morning raid,\u00a0 while about 30 suspects \u201cfled in numerous vehicles,\u201d\u00a0 KSEE\/KGPE news reported.<\/p>\n Officers found \u201clarge amounts of money,\u00a0 scales believed to be used for weighing roosters, \u00a0leg tags, \u00a0receipts documenting wagers, \u00a0raffle tickets, \u00a0and about 20 to 30 live caged roosters,\u201d along with dead roosters,\u00a0 KSEE\/KGPE added.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n AB 928 sponsor Chris Rogers,\u00a0 Taxay of the Bee<\/em> resumed,\u00a0 \u201calleged that many gamefowl preservation groups, \u00a0such as the California Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl, \u00a0operate as political fronts to protect cockfighting. \u00a0The allegation is based in part on the group\u2019s affiliation with the United Gamefowl Breeders Association, \u00a0whose leadership has been tied to the commercial supply chain and political defense of illegal cockfighting.<\/p>\n \u201cThe California chapter denies the allegation,\u201d\u00a0 Taxay wrote, \u00a0\u201cand said its opposition to the bill is rooted in concerns about property rights and cultural preservation.<\/p>\n \u201cIn more recent hearings, \u00a0immigrant rights groups signed onto the opposition, \u00a0worried the bill could provide immigration enforcement officers with an additional pretext to enter homes.\u201d<\/p>\n The response to that is simple and obvious:\u00a0 if afraid of ICE,\u00a0 don\u2019t keep roosters,\u00a0 who tend to alert whole neighborhoods to their presence.<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The noisy proclivities of roosters,\u00a0 rather than cockfighting,\u00a0 provided the initial impetus to the passage of legislation.<\/p>\n Advises Googe AI,\u00a0 \u201cChicken-keeping ordinances are decided locally by tens of thousands of individual municipalities, \u00a0counties, \u00a0and homeowners associations, \u00a0rather than by a single federal or state agency. \u00a0However, \u00a0data from urban planning organizations and poultry advocacy groups indicates that the vast majority of urban and suburban communities across the United States ban roosters entirely.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile a legal overview by the Sustainable Cities Institute shows that 97 of the 100 largest U.S. cities allow backyard hens, \u00a0almost all of those same cities strictly outlaw male chickens.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a> (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n The notion of allowing possession of some roosters while restricting the numbers to discourage cockfighters may have originated in Solano County,\u00a0 California,\u00a0 with a 2011 ordinance prohibiting keeping more than four roosters without an exemption from the county agriculture department.<\/p>\n Challenged in court by gamefowl breeders in Dixon and Vacaville,\u00a0 the Solano County ordinance was upheld at all levels,\u00a0 including by the Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeals.<\/p>\n Monterey County adopted a similar Rooster Keeping\u00a0Ordinance in\u00a02014,\u00a0 with a five-rooster limit,\u00a0 but has rarely enforced it.<\/p>\n (See Wildfires, COVID-19, & cockfighting besiege Monterey County<\/a>.) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sacramento County on July 16,\u00a0 2026 adopted perhaps the strictest rooster limit ordinance in effect yet,\u00a0 allowing no more than two roosters per residential property in unincorporated parts of the county,\u00a0 superseded in cities,\u00a0 towns,\u00a0 and homeowners associations where keeping any roosters is forbidden.<\/p>\n The Sacramento County ordinance also prohibits tethering roosters.<\/p>\n <\/a> Kitty Block.\u00a0 (Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n Humane World for Animals president Kitty Block and Wayne Pacelle,\u00a0 president of both Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy,\u00a0 in September 2025 separately announced their support of AB 928 and\/or similar local legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to be pushing this ordinance in Sacramento,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle told ANIMALS 24-7<\/strong>.\u00a0 \u201cI think California has proved itself to be the biggest cockfighting state in the nation, \u00a0for a variety of reasons, \u00a0and getting these county ordinances, \u00a0and then enforcing them, \u00a0is a big strike against cockfighting.\u201d<\/p>\n Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi,\u00a0 with support from the California-based Humane Farming Association,\u00a0 \u201cwas working in Monterey County a few years back,\u201d\u00a0 Pacelle reminded, \u201cand there were 1,000 backyard cockfighting operations in that county alone.\u201d<\/p>\nCalifornia Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl argues that 90% of game fowl breeders are Latino.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/em><\/span>So are 89% of 90 recent cockfighting-related murder victims.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
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(Beth Clifton collage)<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\nWhat don\u2019t Senators Cervantes & Seyarto get about cockfighting in Riverside County?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nWhat don\u2019t Senators Cabaldon & Wahab get about cockfighting?<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cHundreds\u201d defended \u201clivelihoods or cultural practices\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nRacist presumption<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nOpium dens<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nEnd of opium dens opened Chinatown to relative prosperity<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nCalifornia cockfighting busts<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cPolitical fronts to protect cockfighting\u201d<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cVast majority\u201d of U.S. communities ban rooster-keeping entirely<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\nCalifornia counties began trying to limit rooster numbers<\/h2>\n
<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\nPacelle:\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re going to be pushing this\u201d<\/h2>\n