DEAR DAVID BROOKS,

Will you describe me as a disgusting coastal elitist if it upsets me that certain Southerners enjoy forcing tuskectomized wild hogs to fight pit bulls?

Hog-dog fighting was outlawed in Louisiana last year and the bloody sport is starting to move into south Mississippi, a [Mississippi] Senate panel was told Wednesday....

The "rodeos" put pit bulls or other dogs into pens with wild hogs that are left mostly defenseless after their tusks have been sawed off. People bet on how long it will take the dogs to pin down the hogs.

Members of the Senate Judiciary B Committee on Wednesday were shown a television report about hog-dog fighting in south Alabama. The hogs could be heard screeching loudly as dogs pinned them and chewed their ears....

Ouch. Enough.

This is illegal in Louisiana, but not in Mississippi yet. (The story doesn't mention the legal status in Alabama.) Then again, Warren Trice, a Louisiana state legislator, says that

if Mississippi outlaws hog-dog fighting, "I know damn good and well they're going to come back into Louisiana."

I wonder if anyone who's ever attended one of these fights voted for Kerry last fall. I kinda doubt it.

*****

UPDATE: Another hog-dog story. This one focuses on South Carolina, and notes that hog-dog fights have also taken place in Alabama, Georgia, and Arizona. Gee, all red states.