Lawmaker Aims to Ban Hog-Dog Fights

[Texsox]

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A Louisiana state legislator is trying to outlaw a violent spectator sport: fights pitting vicious dogs against wild hogs.

 

Rep. Warren Triche, a Democrat from Thibodaux, has introduced a bill that would ban the bloodiest forms of "hog-doggin," as the pig-versus-canine duels are known in the rural corners of his state.

 

"My motivation is that it is an absolute cruelty, and damned well sadistic," Triche told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

 

The bill passed the Louisiana House on Tuesday after Triche showed bloody videos of squealing feral hogs being attacked by specially trained dogs. But it must now go the state Senate where Triche fears it may be mired in the mud by opponents friendly to the rural contests.

 

"This is a hillbilly attitude. You could film 'Deliverance 2' and '3' with this kind of attitude," Triche said, referring to the 1972 film that depicted the ordeal suffered by vacationing city dwellers at the hands of a vicious band of rural residents.

 

Even so, rural traditions run deep in largely agricultural Louisiana, where the phrase "Louisiana: Third World and Proud of It" can be seen on car bumper stickers.

 

Louisiana is also one of just two states in the union that has successfully resisted efforts to ban cockfighting, a duel to the death between roosters armed with razors on their claws.

 

Jimmy Young, who runs an annual hog-doggin event in Winnfield, Louisiana, called "Uncle Earl's Hog Dog Trials," said not all of the contests are brutal. In fact, his event -- which draws about 5,000 spectators a year -- is specifically exempted from regulation under Triche's bill.

 

In Young's contest, owners show off their dogs' skills at cornering hogs, which are useful when hunting the wild pigs.

 

He casts the battle to outlaw hog-doggin as one "between rural and urban," and believes it is hypocritical in light of the state's permissiveness toward cockfighting.

 

"It's all right for a man to strap knives on two roosters and let them fight to the death," said Young. "That's not cruel, but it's cruel for us to remove hogs off our property that have destroyed thousands of dollars?"

 

Feral hogs are a considerable nuisance to farmers and ranchers in Louisiana and neighboring Texas, where the massive, tusked pigs cause property damage.