Legislature May Ban Hog-Dog Rodeos

I'm not normally one to jump on an animal-rights bandwagon, but how could a ban on hog-dog "rodeos" be bad? From the AP:

A bill to ban hog-dog rodeos - spectator contests in which pit bulls or American bulldogs are released to subdue hogs or feral pigs - has support in the Alabama Legislature but is caught in a legislative logjam, according to the bill's backers...

Billed as family entertainment, the rodeos feature hogs, usually with their tusks removed, released in a pen with "catch dogs," who subdue the hogs by biting their ears and pulling them to the ground. The contest is timed. The dogs are sometimes suited in chest armor, but both the dogs and the hogs typically sustain major injuries...

One of the bill's supporters is John Goodwin of the Humane Society of the United States.

Goodwin said a broader law banning all animal-against-animal bloodsports was not pursued because the breeders of fighting cocks are well organized and politically connected. Though cock-fighting is illegal in Alabama, the state has one of the weaker laws against it, Goodwin said.

Something tells me that the Cockfighters PAC won't be showing up on any campaign disclosure statements.