State set for legislative cockfight
by MIKE HASTEN - Shreveport Times (excerpt)

BATON ROUGE — The stage is set for a legislative cockfight in the next few weeks as the House and Senate battle over bills that have the same ultimate goal but go about it differently.

The full House has approved HB108 by Rep. Harold Ritchie, D-Bogalusa, which would outlaw cockfighting Aug. 15, 2008, and the Senate soon will debate SB28 by Sen. Art Lentini, R-Metairie, which would end it Aug. 15 of this year. Aug. 15 is when new laws go into effect.

House members say cockfighters should be given time to weed out their stock and get into other lines of business. Lentini and numerous senators say it needs to end now.

Besides the date, the penalties in the respective bills vary.