Ken Cuccinelli on the Defensive About Cock Fighting Ad

PM has a post up on Raising Kaine about Ken Cuccinelli's response to a Humane Society ad that takes him to task for his position on cock fighting. The ad appeared locally and apparently has the Cooch on the defensive.

He voted against measures to outlaw cock fighting in Virginia. Since Maryland and North Carolina have both made it a felony, the fighting venue have moved to Virginia, bringing with it, not just a disgusting and cruel sport, but the crimes of gambling and drug and alcohol abuse that go with it. Ironically, this "sport" - and I use the term very loosely since there's nothing sporting about arming chickens with knives and razors in their claws to make their deaths more bloody and painful - is popular among some groups of illegal immigrants, the very people Ken claims to want to discourage from coming into Virginia.

In addition, in a letter he wrote to the Connection newspapers, defending his position, he ends with the, what he thinks is witty, comment that he enjoys a good drumstick.

So do I. But I don't enjoy the thought of animals dying in a needlessly painful and violent manner. When animals are slaughtered for food consumption, it is usually in a manner that is quick and as painless as possible, not in a drawn out bloody battle waged for entertainment.

I'm not sure I get the Cooch's faux libertarian values. He works hard to prevent women from having access to birth control yet he makes light of cruelty to animals.

And, no, I'm not comparing the life of a human to that of an animal. I deliberately left the abortion issue out of this. I'm talking about his opposition to a woman's right to birth control prescriptions, something that involves no death. Again, I'll repeat for the scientifically challenged, even if life begins at conception, preventing conception is not the same as murder.

But making light of the bloody and protracted death of animals for sport and entertainment is being a poor steward and misuing God's creatures. It does not have the same moral equivalency of harming a human being but it is nonetheless immoral and probably a sin.