Alleged Cockfight Mag To Stay Off Amazon

Publisher To Pull Magazine Off Online Retailer After Humane Society Sues Site

(AP)  A magazine that the Humane Society of the United States says promotes cockfighting has agreed to ask Amazon.com to stop selling its publication online.

The settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Monday is related to a lawsuit the Humane Society filed against Seattle-based Amazon.com Inc. in February 2007.

In the lawsuit, the Humane Society accused the online retailer of violating federal animal cruelty laws by selling The Gamecock and The Feathered Warrior, which the group described as cockfighting magazines.

Marburger Publishing Co., which publishes The Gamecock, agreed to settle with the Humane Society because it was a way to remove itself from the case, but the publication does not promote cockfighting or violate a federal ban on the bloody sport, said attorney Ali Beydoun of the law firm Carr Maloney.

Beydoun said the magazine also promised in the settlement "to be more vigilant in its content." He said the magazine intends to follow the agreement and all applicable laws.

Amazon spokeswoman Patty Smith said Tuesday the company was reviewing the agreement and had no immediate comment.

Humane Society lawyer Jonathan Lovvorn said his organization is hoping the agreement with Hartford, Ark.-based Marburger, which still needs approval from the judge hearing the case, will encourage Amazon and The Feathered Warrior, another Arkansas magazine, to come to similar agreements.

"We never wanted to have this dispute with Amazon," Lovvorn said, adding that the Humane Society first went to Amazon to ask the company to remove the two magazines from its site.

Amazon has argued that it has a constitutional right to sell the publications and called pulling them from sale a form of censorship.

A recent federal law added felony-level penalties for activities promoting or encouraging animal fighting. The Animal Fighting Prohibition Act of 2007 also made it a felony to knowingly sponsor or exhibit an animal fight, or to buy, sell or transport knives, gaffs and other weapons used in cockfighting.

Cockfighting is illegal in every state except Louisiana, where a legislative ban goes into effect in August.

Lovvorn called The Gamecock "the oldest and best-known cockfighting magazine in the United States."

Beydoun described the magazine as appealing to "chicken aficionados," focusing on animal care and stories about people who raise chickens and game birds.

"It's a hard magazine to come by. It's not as available as People magazine or Vanity Fair," he said.

About the only places a chicken lover could buy the publication are at an animal feed store or via Amazon, where the publication was offered by a magazine distributor, not the publisher, said Barry A. Fisher, of the Los Angeles law firm Fleishman & Fisher, which also represents Marburger Publishing.

Fisher said the lawsuit isn't really about The Gamecock or The Feathered Warrior.

"Their real target is Amazon," he said.

Amazon has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Lovvorn said.

[gopsoccermom]

Now where am I going to get the next issue of "The Feathered Warrior"? Thanks a lot liberals!

[squidly8]

Two different groups but isn''t it kind of funny that Amazon isn''t interested it putting a **** fighting book on their sight but google or you tube is OK with leaving human slaughter videos up on their sight.

[shawnp1968]

Now i''m just confused... When they said cockfighting, I thought they were talking about a gay male porno magazine!!! How embarrassed am I!!! Hell... let the roosters fight!!! It''s more humane than the treatment they get in slaughter houses!!

[element51]

I buy lots of stuff from Amazon but if they had allowed this so called "magazine" to continue I would never go to their site again. This kind of "sport" is disgusting and should be banned. *** fights and dog fighting are barbaric and it''s hard to believe that so many people think it''s all right to treat these animals this way. Good for you, Amazon!

[Syndicate]

I support Amazon. Censorship is bad. If you ban this magazine you should also ban the Bible. How many people have been murdered because of what the bible says?

[gopsoccermom]

You liberals have taken this nice board about cockfighting and turned it into something unfit for christian reading!

[randynason]

I side with the Humane Society and think that cockfighting is cruel and abusive. To promote it is sick and twisted; almost as sick and twisted as the ones who derive joy out of watching another creature suffer in torment for sport. To say that the mag has its'' rights of free expression violated is just plain ignorant. You lose the right to freedom of expression when you use it to endorse killing and wholesale sadism.

[element51]

gopsoccermom...Please tell me what cockfighting has to do with "christian reading"? If you call yourself a christian and believe something this barbaric is acceptable then I must have missed something in Sunday School. And just what does liberal have to do with this. Are you saying that because we oppose this kind of nonsense and are liberal that we are wrong. You republicans sure have some strange values. To enjoy watching another living creature abused and tortured is just plain sick. But then I forget that your "leaders" think torture is no big deal.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Beydoun described the magazine as appealing to "chicken aficionados,"

Mr. Cheney? Bet he loves doing chickens.

I couldn''t help it, it was too juicy to leave alone.

[carlylaine]

brianbwb You are a fool.

[rational_1]

Oh man, I was just about to order a subscription for my wife for her birthday! Nothing like snuggling around a fireplace on a Saturday night and reading about chickens fighting. Good times!

[rational_1]

The Feathered Warrior? Just the title makes me laugh. Sounds like a Jackie Chan film. I''m picturing ol'' Jackie dressed up in a chicken costume doing his chop-socky moves on a guy dressed like a duck.