This post is predominantly meant to be informative. Hopefully to provide some facts & simply correct a few misunderstandings and/or misconceptions.
While I don't want for an instant to minimize the concern over cockfighting, fwiw I did a search on all loans for "cockfight" and came up with 4, including the one that is currently basketed. Of the three others, all long since repaid, two definitely had to do with cockfighting, and the third mentioned incidentally that the client's husband was in the business, though the loan was completely unrelated.
The reason a search only shows 4 cockfighting or related loans is because once a loan is refunded, it "disappears" from the Kiva search option. (It is like Kiva takes it off the books so to speak).
Why Kiva does this I can't say definitively although I have a theory.
Here is the full list of cockfighting (or related) loans:
http://www.kiva.org/lend/17882Graciela is 23 years old. Her husband works training roosters for the typical cockfights common in the area. Graciela works selling shoes from catalogs
Activity: Shoe Sales
Loan Use: Sales of footwear
http://www.kiva.org/lend/36187Sara Elva Vasquez Rodriquez runs a cockfighting business in the rural jungle town of Jepelacio, San Martin. Cockfighting is a passion for people all over Peru, including major urban areas.
Activity: Retail
Loan Use: With the loan she would like to buy a freezer to keep various goods she serves her customers
http://www.kiva.org/lend/60965Jenny is a primary school teacher by profession... She earns a living by raising and selling poultry, as well as raising cockfighters which she either rents or sells.... She begins selling the poultry chickens every 25 days, while the cockfighters are major competitors in coliseums.
Activity: Poultry
Loan Use: Construction of suitable pens for raising her chickens and fighting cocks
http://www.kiva.org/lend/99058 **Verencia Enjambre raises chickens for a living.... She has many cocks in her farm which she sells at Php 2,500 each.
Activity: Poultry
Loan Use: To buy feed for the chickens
Refunded by Kiva
http://www.kiva.org/lend/106842 **William... is 25 years old and single. He studied pharmacy in university, and now he raises fighting cocks.
Activity: Animal Sales
Loan Use: William needs a loan of 1500 soles, which he'll invest in rooster feed and tournament registration fees.
Refunded by Finca Peru
http://www.kiva.org/lend/112697 **The family raises poultry in their barangay (neighborhood or district).... She seeks a new loan of Php 5,000.00 to buy additional chickens and feed.
Activity: Poultry
Loan Use: Purchase 60 sacks of animal feed
Refunded by PMPC
http://www.kiva.org/lend/183580Current loan
Raul... is single and his desire to improve his life is evident because he also raises gamecocks. Cockfighting, which is a combat between two roosters of the same species also known as "fine birds of combat", was created by humans for their enjoyment.
Activity: Motorcycle Transport
Loan Use: Purchase of spare parts
So the current number of loans for or related to cockfighting are 7 (or 6 depending on your point of view), not
really 3 or 2.
Actually there is an 8th loan that strongly suggests it is for someone who is in the cockfighting business. However, since the loan description is vague & it is currently being investigated by Opportunity International via its Field Partner, I haven't included it here.
** Loans that don't show up in a search for
cockfight.The most striking example of loans that are hard to find is
WITEPKiva Entrepreneurs: 306
Total Loans: $4,500
$4500 divided by 306 = $14.71
Average loan size of $14.71
See all loans from this field partner >>Found 5 loans sorted by New to Old.
http://www.kiva.org/lend?partner_id=11&status=All&sortBy=New+to+OldTotal Loans - $4500
Refunded WITEP loans
Found 301 loans sorted by New to Old.
http://www.kiva.org/lend?partner_id=11&status=Refunded&sortBy=New+to+OldRefund Rate - 5,606.67%
Amount of Refunded Loans - $252,300
Number Of Refunded Loans - 301
(This information is available if one expands the Total Loans & Refund Rate lower down on the FP page under
Repayment Performance on Kiva)
Four (or really 3 or 2) loans out of nearly 200,000 is a very small number, and while it should be zero, I think the article goes a little overboard with its statement that Kiva supports animal abuse.
Hmmmm??
I wonder how many banks someone would have to rob before being considered a bank robber
How many people would someone have to rape before being properly labeled a rapist
How many children would someone have to molest before correctly being called a pedophile
How many animals/people would someone have to torture, maim or kill before being accurately labeled as a degenerate, sadist or psychopath
If someone led an exemplary life for 30, 40, 50, 60, even 70 years or more and then murdered someone, wouldn't they then indeed be a murderer
The article could give the impression that this is a common sort of loan for Kiva, and in fact it simply isn't. I think it is important to express the views of the lender community to Kiva that many feel deeply upset about any loans for this kind of business, legal or not.
I agree that people should express their own view.
Whether or not this kind of loan is common doesn't mitigate the fact that Kiva, by allowing their Field Partners to post loans that are for animal cruelty, bloodsports etc., is supporting & promoting this behavior.
Support - a person or thing that supports, as financially
a person or thing that gives aid or assistance. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/supportPromote - to help or encourage to exist or flourish; further
to aid in organizing (business undertakings)
to encourage the sales, acceptance, etc., of (a product), esp. through advertising or other publicity. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/promoteIt might also be useful for Kiva to communicate with its field partners that this kind of business is upsetting to many of its lenders,
Kiva has consistently refused to do so (citing more than once
"cultural imperialism") and that they should refrain from incidental mention of it, as in the case of the 3rd loan mentioned above. That is, if the client is, for example, a woman running a shop and the loan is for the shop, but the client's husband is in the cockfighting business, that shouldn't taint the loan in my view. Better simply not to mention the husband's business.
I completely agree. Why taint or prejudice a loan with a known (at least by Kiva) controversial topic/practice when it is unrelated to the actual loan purpose
From a message to a Kiva Lender from the Field Partner EDESA:
Contrary to other countries of Central America, in Costa Rica cockfighting is not permitted. In EDESA we do not give loans for this or any other illegal activity. In our credit statutes we also have strict regulations that do not permit loans which may cause any negative social or environmental impact.
So there are some countries, even in Latin America, where the practice of bloodsports is frowned upon notwithstanding the spurious argument or claim that cockfighting is a
"part of the culture".
