California Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl argues that 90% of game fowl breeders are Latino.  So are 89% of 90 recent cockfighting-related murder victims.

SACRAMENTO,  California––California state assembly member Chris Rogers,  a Democrat from Ukiah,  might have imagined his anti-cockfighting bill,  AB 928,  would easily clear the state senate appropriations committee on August 3,  2026 and advance to passage.

AB 928,  written to limit to 25 the number of tethered roosters anyone could keep on a single property,  had already cleared the state assembly on June 4,  2025,  by a margin of 46-15.

AB 928 had also cleared the California state senate judiciary committee on June 22,  2026,  by a vote of 7-2.

California senators Sabrina Cervantes and Kelly Seyarto.
(Beth Clifton collage)

What don’t Senators Cervantes & Seyarto get about cockfighting in Riverside County?

Referred by the judiciary committee the next day to the appropriations committee,  AB 928 next came before five Democrats,  including committee chair Sabrina Cervantes,  from Riverside County,  and only two Republicans,  led by committee vice chair Kelly Seyarto,  representing parts of Riverside,  San Bernardino,  and Orange counties.

Both Cervantes and Seyarto should have been familiar with the drug-related havoc,  including murder, associated with cockfighting in their districts.  Cervantes and Seyarto should also have been well aware of the catastrophic effects of Newcastle disease,  spread primarily by cockfighters,  on the poultry industries of their districts.

(See Disease linked to cockfighting menaces California poultry industry.)

California senators Aisha Wahab & Christopher Cabaldon.  (Beth Clifton collage)

What don’t Senators Cabaldon & Wahab get about cockfighting?

Fellow California senate appropriations committee member Christopher L. Cabaldon,  the first Filipino-American senator in California history,   was previously the longest serving mayor of West Sacramento ever,  serving from 1998 to 2020.

Cabaldon should have had a comparable level of awareness,  because crime and disease linked to cockfighting occurred in West Sacramento during his mayoral tenure.

Another California senate appropriations committee member,  Aisha Wahab,  the first Muslim and Afghan American elected to the California state senate,  should have known that Mohammed himself forbade any form of animal fighting.

The other three California senate appropriations committee members,  Megan Dahle,  a Republican,  and Tim Grayson and Laura Richardson,  both Democrats,  might not have been as familiar with the societal harm done by cockfighting as Cervantes,  Seyarto,  Cabaldon,  and Wahab might have been expected to be.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Hundreds” defended “livelihoods or cultural practices”

            But the majority of the California state senate appropriations committee should not have groveled as they did on August 3,  2026,  killing AB 928 after “Hundreds of people came to Sacramento from across the state to oppose the bill,”  summarized Naomi Taxay for the Sacramento Bee.

“Many of their concerns focused on how the bill would affect their livelihoods or cultural practices,”  Taxay continued,  noting that AB 928 “included exemptions for several non-cockfighting purposes,  including food production,  educational programs,  animal shelters and exhibitions.

“According to the primary opposition group,”  Taxay explained,  “the California Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl,  90% of game fowl breeders are Latino.  During the senate appropriations hearing on August 3,  2026,  opponents wore shirts with the phrase ‘Stop targeting minorities.’”

(Beth Clifton collage)

Racist presumption

About 41% of California residents are Latino,  as are more than half of the constituents in Riverside County.

Among 773 recent arrestees for alleged cockfighting activity,  logged from law enforcement reports and news accounts by ANIMALS 24-7 in 2025,  63% had Spanish surnames.

But a presumption that because the participants in a particular criminal activity are predominantly of one ethnicity,  that the criminal activity is part of the cultural heritage of the ethnicity is racist on the very face of it.

Such an argument could be used to defend the Sicilian mafia,  for instance,  or Colombian cocaine cartels,  or the Ku Klux Klan.

Often,  though not always,  the victims of the crime in question are also predominantly of the same ethnicity as the criminals.  For example,  of the most recent 90 victims of murders associated with cockfighting of whom ANIMALS 24-7 has record,  89% were Latino.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Opium dens

California has had more than 150 years of experience with this sort of thing,  albeit that the history seems to have been unknown to the seven members of the California state senate appropriations committee.

Just a little more than 150 years ago,  opium dens plagued the inner city Chinatowns of San Francisco,  San Diego,  and Los Angeles,  protected by criminal gangs called “tongs.”

The victims of opium addiction were primarily Chinese immigrants and their families,  including women driven into prostitution,  but little or nothing was done to fight the opium trade until photographs were distributed of addicted Caucasian women.

Then,  “Driven by anti-Chinese xenophobia,  San Francisco passed the nation’s first anti-drug law—the Opium Den Ordinance—in 1875,”  Google AI tells us.

(Beth Clifton collage)

End of opium dens opened Chinatown to relative prosperity

Despite the Opium Den Ordinance,  opium dens persisted,  and were even promoted in San Francisco as a tourist attraction,  as cockfighting was until recently in Louisiana,  Hawaii,  and Puerto Rico.

Then the 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed most of Chinatown,  and indeed destroyed most of San Francisco.

The rebuilt Chinatown,  largely without opium dens,  has never been as prosperous on the whole as most of the rest of San Francisco,  but San Francisco post-1906 has been continuously among the most prosperous U.S. cities,  ranking first in affluence since 2022.

San Francisco prosperity,  ironically,  has in recent years been threatened only by resurgent drug-related crime.

(Beth Clifton collage)

California cockfighting busts

Meanwhile in Sacramento,  Taxay of the Bee recalled that,  “Although cockfighting is illegal under both federal and state law,  California has been the site of some of the nation’s largest cockfighting busts.  In 2017,  deputies seized approximately 7,000 birds in Southern California.  As recently as February,  a months-long investigation led to the recovery of more than 800 birds in Santa Rosa.”

And on August 9,  2026,  less than a week after the California senate appropriations committee killed AB 928,  the sheriff’s office in Tulare County,  California arrested four alleged cockfighters in a Sunday morning raid,  while about 30 suspects “fled in numerous vehicles,”  KSEE/KGPE news reported.

Officers found “large amounts of money,  scales believed to be used for weighing roosters,  leg tags,  receipts documenting wagers,  raffle tickets,  and about 20 to 30 live caged roosters,” along with dead roosters,  KSEE/KGPE added.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Political fronts to protect cockfighting”

AB 928 sponsor Chris Rogers,  Taxay of the Bee resumed,  “alleged that many gamefowl preservation groups,  such as the California Association for the Preservation of Gamefowl,  operate as political fronts to protect cockfighting.  The allegation is based in part on the group’s affiliation with the United Gamefowl Breeders Association,  whose leadership has been tied to the commercial supply chain and political defense of illegal cockfighting.

“The California chapter denies the allegation,”  Taxay wrote,  “and said its opposition to the bill is rooted in concerns about property rights and cultural preservation.

“In more recent hearings,  immigrant rights groups signed onto the opposition,  worried the bill could provide immigration enforcement officers with an additional pretext to enter homes.”

The response to that is simple and obvious:  if afraid of ICE,  don’t keep roosters,  who tend to alert whole neighborhoods to their presence.

(Beth Clifton collage)

“Vast majority” of U.S. communities ban rooster-keeping entirely

The noisy proclivities of roosters,  rather than cockfighting,  provided the initial impetus to the passage of legislation.

Advises Googe AI,  “Chicken-keeping ordinances are decided locally by tens of thousands of individual municipalities,  counties,  and homeowners associations,  rather than by a single federal or state agency.  However,  data from urban planning organizations and poultry advocacy groups indicates that the vast majority of urban and suburban communities across the United States ban roosters entirely.

“While a legal overview by the Sustainable Cities Institute shows that 97 of the 100 largest U.S. cities allow backyard hens,  almost all of those same cities strictly outlaw male chickens.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

California counties began trying to limit rooster numbers

The notion of allowing possession of some roosters while restricting the numbers to discourage cockfighters may have originated in Solano County,  California,  with a 2011 ordinance prohibiting keeping more than four roosters without an exemption from the county agriculture department.

Challenged in court by gamefowl breeders in Dixon and Vacaville,  the Solano County ordinance was upheld at all levels,  including by the Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeals.

Monterey County adopted a similar Rooster Keeping Ordinance in 2014,  with a five-rooster limit,  but has rarely enforced it.

(See Wildfires, COVID-19, & cockfighting besiege Monterey County.)

            Sacramento County on July 16,  2026 adopted perhaps the strictest rooster limit ordinance in effect yet,  allowing no more than two roosters per residential property in unincorporated parts of the county,  superseded in cities,  towns,  and homeowners associations where keeping any roosters is forbidden.

The Sacramento County ordinance also prohibits tethering roosters.

Kitty Block.  (Beth Clifton collage)

Pacelle:  “We’re going to be pushing this”

Humane World for Animals president Kitty Block and Wayne Pacelle,  president of both Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy,  in September 2025 separately announced their support of AB 928 and/or similar local legislation.

“We’re going to be pushing this ordinance in Sacramento,”  Pacelle told ANIMALS 24-7.  “I think California has proved itself to be the biggest cockfighting state in the nation,  for a variety of reasons,  and getting these county ordinances,  and then enforcing them,  is a big strike against cockfighting.”

Showing Animals Respect & Kindness founder Steve Hindi,  with support from the California-based Humane Farming Association,  “was working in Monterey County a few years back,”  Pacelle reminded, “and there were 1,000 backyard cockfighting operations in that county alone.”

(Beth Clifton collage)

25-rooster limit would in effect legalize cockfighting

But there is as yet no evidence that rooster limits are either enforceable or effective in reducing cockfighting.  The failure of enforcement in Monterey County stands as Exhibit A.

The 25-rooster limit proposed by AB 928 would in effect have legalized cockfighting,  by setting the threshhold for humane enforcement against cockfighters at a level that would exempt practically all but the most active,  and would do nothing at all to prevent gamefowl breeders from using their winning roosters to breed any number of hens.

Merritt & Beth Clifton with Henry the rooster.

In light of that reality,  what opposition to AB 928 was really all about was defending gamefowl breeding on an industrial scale,  for cockfighting practiced at the level of legal forms of gambling.

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An 18-year-old California man has admitted he kicked a sea lion in a video that went viral recently – while referring to himself by the name of an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) competitor – and has pleaded guilty to a federal crime.

Tyler Muehl, of San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood, faces up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine after acknowledging in court on Thursday that he violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act’s prohibition on harassment of wildlife, federal prosecutors said in a statement.

In court papers, Muehl conceded that he repeatedly kicked a protected sea lion that was peacefully sitting on a wall in La Jolla Cove near Ellen Browning Scripps Park on the night of 22 July 2026. He said he went up to the animal with his hands up as if he were readying himself to fight the sea lion and referred to himself by the name of former UFC featherweight division champion Max Holloway as he approached the creature.

Muehl confessed to kicking the sea lion four times. He twice kicked the creature’s face, causing it to “rear, flinch and immediately recoil” as well as prompting it to try to flee. Muehl then chased the sea lion and kicked the animal a third time as it stumbled on the wall, prosecutors said in their statement.

After Muehl continued pursuing the creature and kicked it a fourth time, the sea lion managed to escape him by getting over the sea wall and making it to an adjacent beach.

A video of the brutal attack surfaced on social media days later, and Muehl agreed in court that the widely circulated footage constituted “a fair and accurate recording of what occurred”.

Muehl was charged in a misdemeanor bill of information on Thursday that evidently marked the first time he was publicly identified in connection with the video of the sea lion being victimized. He pleaded guilty at his arraignment later that same day and was tentatively scheduled to be sentenced before the US magistrate judge Jill L Burkhardt on the morning of 20 October.

Federal court minutes show Muehl could remain out of custody pending his sentencing, and he was ordered to abstain from alcohol or marijuana.

In a statement after Muehl’s guilty plea, the US attorney for the southern district of California, Adam Gordon, said, “Federal crime. Federal consequences.”

Eric Morgan of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries office of law enforcement – which investigated Muehl – said the agency “takes all violations of the Marine Mammal Protection Act very seriously”.

“Intentionally striking or kicking a marine mammal is not only illegal – it is dangerous for the well-being of the animal,” Morgan’s statement said.

The Guardian has emailed Muehl’s listed attorney for comment.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s guidelines caution people who are viewing sea lions, seals and other species covered by the Marine Mammal Protection Act to remain at least 150ft (46 meters) away from them.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Kern County supervisors are exploring a proposal that would place Kern and dozens of other counties in a new state, separate from coastal California.

Kern County District 3 Supervisor Jeff Flores said the effort is about making sure the region’s industries and way of life are taken seriously by state leaders.

“So I want to use this exercise to get the attention of the lawmakers, of the governor, that Kern County matters, that our industries matter, that our way of life matters,” Flores said.

An analysis presented to the board found the proposed inland state would account for only about 15 percent of California’s current real GDP.

CSU Bakersfield economics professor Richard Gearhart said that number tells a stark story about what separation would actually mean for the region.

“If we were to secede and become our own state, would be about $500 billion with a B,” Gearhart said. “Kern County accounts for about $60 to $70 billion of that. So we would be about 1/10 of the state economy at that point. But the rest of California would be close to $3 trillion worth of GDP and we’d be cutting ourselves off from a highly educated workforce with lots of industry and those sorts of things.”

Gearhart said the proposed inland state would drop California from the fourth-largest economy in the world to roughly the 16th-largest state economy in the country — comparable to Missouri.

“We would lose a lot of economic opportunities, we would lose a lot of economic growth,” Gearhart said. “It would be essentially shooting ourselves in the foot were we to follow this through.”

Gearhart also warned the split would dramatically reduce the region’s workforce. He said inland California’s employment would fall from roughly 20 million employed people statewide to about 5 million — a reduction of approximately 13 million jobs.

“We would probably see a wave of businesses closing because they couldn’t absorb the loss of both workers and tax revenues from the state of California,” Gearhart said.

Gearhart said the proposed inland state would be left relying heavily on natural resources like agriculture and oil.

“There are no developed countries that are majority natural resource exporters, so we would be more considered to be closer towards a developing country than a developed country at that point,” Gearhart said.

He also raised the possibility of a Rust Belt-style economic decline taking hold in Central California if the split moved forward.

Gearhart warned that Kern County residents would likely face higher taxes to fund basic services.

“In the short term, we’d absolutely have to raise taxes to fund everyday amenities like schools, roads, police, firefighters—those sorts of things—and we don’t have the tax base for it,” Gearhart said.

He said that could include a new state income tax, sales taxes rising above 10 percent, and higher property taxes — all of which could accelerate population loss and further erode the tax base.

Dividing California’s existing assets, including water systems, debt, and statewide programs, would also be a massive undertaking, Gearhart said.

“It would be nearly impossible,” Gearhart said. “There would be lots of fights because existing treaties and agreements since the 1800s would be in place. So it would just be a long drawn out legal battle which would increase costs for everyday Californians.”

He said litigation alone could cost the proposed inland state several billion dollars.

Gearhart said he views the proposal as having no basis in economic analysis.

“It is solely for political theater,” Gearhart said.

Flores acknowledged the chances of an actual split are remote, saying the immediate goal is a stronger voice, not necessarily a new border.

“We want to work with California, not against California, and that goes both ways,” Flores said.

County staff will now draft a letter outlining the board’s position and look further into what a split could mean for Kern County. That letter is expected to return to supervisors at their next meeting on August 25.
Kern County supervisors are exploring a proposal that would place Kern and dozens of other counties in a new state, separate from coastal California.

Kern County District 3 Supervisor Jeff Flores said the effort is about making sure the region’s industries and way of life are taken seriously by state leaders.

“So I want to use this exercise to get the attention of the lawmakers, of the governor, that Kern County matters, that our industries matter, that our way of life matters,” Flores said.

An analysis presented to the board found the proposed inland state would account for only about 15 percent of California’s current real GDP.

CSU Bakersfield economics professor Richard Gearhart said that number tells a stark story about what separation would actually mean for the region.

“If we were to secede and become our own state, would be about $500 billion with a B,” Gearhart said. “Kern County accounts for about $60 to $70 billion of that. So we would be about 1/10 of the state economy at that point. But the rest of California would be close to $3 trillion worth of GDP and we’d be cutting ourselves off from a highly educated workforce with lots of industry and those sorts of things.”

Gearhart said the proposed inland state would drop California from the fourth-largest economy in the world to roughly the 16th-largest state economy in the country — comparable to Missouri.

“We would lose a lot of economic opportunities, we would lose a lot of economic growth,” Gearhart said. “It would be essentially shooting ourselves in the foot were we to follow this through.”

Gearhart also warned the split would dramatically reduce the region’s workforce. He said inland California’s employment would fall from roughly 20 million employed people statewide to about 5 million — a reduction of approximately 13 million jobs.

“We would probably see a wave of businesses closing because they couldn’t absorb the loss of both workers and tax revenues from the state of California,” Gearhart said.

Gearhart said the proposed inland state would be left relying heavily on natural resources like agriculture and oil.

“There are no developed countries that are majority natural resource exporters, so we would be more considered to be closer towards a developing country than a developed country at that point,” Gearhart said.

He also raised the possibility of a Rust Belt-style economic decline taking hold in Central California if the split moved forward.

Gearhart warned that Kern County residents would likely face higher taxes to fund basic services.

“In the short term, we’d absolutely have to raise taxes to fund everyday amenities like schools, roads, police, firefighters—those sorts of things—and we don’t have the tax base for it,” Gearhart said.

He said that could include a new state income tax, sales taxes rising above 10 percent, and higher property taxes — all of which could accelerate population loss and further erode the tax base.

Dividing California’s existing assets, including water systems, debt, and statewide programs, would also be a massive undertaking, Gearhart said.

“It would be nearly impossible,” Gearhart said. “There would be lots of fights because existing treaties and agreements since the 1800s would be in place. So it would just be a long drawn out legal battle which would increase costs for everyday Californians.”

He said litigation alone could cost the proposed inland state several billion dollars.

Gearhart said he views the proposal as having no basis in economic analysis.

“It is solely for political theater,” Gearhart said.

Flores acknowledged the chances of an actual split are remote, saying the immediate goal is a stronger voice, not necessarily a new border.

“We want to work with California, not against California, and that goes both ways,” Flores said.

County staff will now draft a letter outlining the board’s position and look further into what a split could mean for Kern County. That letter is expected to return to supervisors at their next meeting on August 25.

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