Louisiana Voice

It was a headline that could only occur in Louisiana.

Two fighting roosters are ON THE LAM from the St. Landry Parish animal shelter, according to Sheriff Bobby Guidroz.

It’s not known who egged the boids on or what may have spurred them to fly the coop but sheriff’s deputies, their feathers ruffled from the whole affair, will probably comb the parish to force them to abandon their new roost. Nor was it determined whether or not there were any chicks involved as accomplices in hatching the escape plan.

The birds were among 70 fighting roosters seized in a recent raid by officials, the first such raid in the parish since cockfighting was finally outlawed in Louisiana. Early reports that a man identified only as Col. Sanders was initially involved but ultimately chickened out were denied by Guidroz.

But now, two of the roosters have been stolen from the animal shelter and no one seems to know just how the thieves managed to pull the heist off without leaving a trace. Fowl play was not immediately suspected, though it was not completely ruled out. “This is nothing to crow about,” said a disgusted Guidroz. “We’re scrambling for answers.”

That’s a bit of a reversal from the attitude taken by state officials back in the 1970s when controversy erupted over staged cockfights in St. Landry Parish.

At that time, William Guste was the cock of the walk, number one in the attorney general’s office’s pecking order, and he was charged with looking into bringing animal cruelty charges against those who held the cockfights in St. Landry.

Instead, Guste cackled that chickens weren’t animals, they were fowl, and thus did not fall under the state’s cruelty to animals statute.

And so, the sadistic “sport” went on unabated in the gret stet of Loozeraner.

Until 2008, that is, when the legislature made the practice illegal, making us the last state in the U.S. to ban the practice. Again, another legacy of which we can be so proud.

The 70 birds, seized from John Eddie Lachapelle of Opelousas, were scheduled to be euthanized but authorities are trying to ensure that Lachapelle bears the cost of housing and caring for them until the death sentences are carried out.

Naturally, everything is not as cut and dried as it might be. Earlier this year, the Parish Council took up a proposal to SEEK AN EXEMPTION to the state’s cockfighting ban, providing a beakon of hope for advocates, so to speak. The council meeting attracted a packed crowd of supporters who insisted that the practice is part of Cajun and Creole heritage, not to mention the economic development cockfighting events could bring to rural areas like Sunset, once home to a well-known cockfighting pit. The money exchanged in the betting ain’t chickenfeed, after all.

Guidroz said he was “disappointed” that parish leaders even raised the possibility of repealing the ban when cockfighting cannot be legalized at the local level.

Meanwhile, authorities are searching for any nugget of information that might lead to the whereabouts of the fugitive roosters.