Legislator visualizes roosters as boxers

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — With cockfighting now banned in Oklahoma, one legislator is proposing a blood-free alternative: fitting roosters with little boxing gloves and letting them slug it out.

"Who's going to object to chickens fighting like humans do? Everybody wins," said Democratic state Sen. Frank Shurden, a protector of the game-fowl industry and a longtime defender of cockfighting, in which birds are fitted with razor-like spurs and often battle to the death.

Oklahoma voters banned cockfighting in 2002. The practice is still legal in Louisiana and New Mexico.

"To me it answers everything. It saves the industry, takes blood sport out and generates revenue for Oklahoma," Shurden said.