Cockfight

A cockfight is a blood sport between two cocks, or gamecocks, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the word gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634,[1] after the term "cock of the game" used by George Wilson, in the earliest known book on the sport of cockfighting in The Commendation of Cocks and Cock Fighting in 1607. But it was during Magellan's voyage of discovery of the Philippines in 1521 when modern cockfighting was first witnessed and documented by Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler, in the kingdom of Taytay.

Cockfight in London, c. 1808

Colonel Mordaunt's cockfight in Lucknow, 1784–1786, by Johann Zoffany

The wantilan, a Balinese cockfighting pavilion, and important temple ritual

The combatants, referred to as gamecocks (not to be confused with game birds), are specially bred and conditioned for increased stamina and strength. Male and female chickens of such a breed are referred to as game fowl. Cocks possess congenital aggression toward all males of the same species. Wagers are often made on the outcome of the match.

Cockfighting is a blood sport due in some part to the physical trauma the cocks inflict on each other, which is sometimes increased by attaching metal spurs to the cocks' natural spurs. While not all fights are to the death, the cocks may endure significant physical trauma. In some areas around the world, cockfighting is still practiced as a mainstream event; in some countries it is regulated by law, or forbidden outright. Advocates of the "age old sport"[2][3] often list cultural and religious relevance as reasons for perpetuation of cockfighting as a sport.[4]

Process

Two owners place their gamecock in the cockpit. The cocks fight until ultimately one of them dies or is critically injured. Historically, this was in a cockpit, a term which was also used in the 16th century to mean a place of entertainment or frenzied activity. William Shakespeare used the term in Henry V to specifically mean the area around the stage of a theatre. In Tudor times, the Palace of Westminster had a permanent cockpit, called the Cockpit-in-Court.

History

In this ancient Roman mosaic, two cocks face off in front of a table displaying the purse for the winner between a caduceus and a palm of victory (National Archaeological Museum of Naples)

Cockfighting is an ancient spectator sport. There is evidence that cockfighting was a pastime in the Indus Valley Civilization.[5] The Encyclopædia Britannica (2008) holds:[6]

The sport was popular in ancient times in India, China, Persia, and other Eastern countries and was introduced into Ancient Greece in the time of Themistocles (c. 524–460 BC). For a long time the Romans affected to despise this "Greek diversion", but they ended up adopting it so enthusiastically that the agricultural writer Columella (1st century AD) complained that its devotees often spent their whole patrimony in betting at the side of the pit.

Based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal, Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the city's ancient name could have been Kukkutarma ("the city [-rma] of the cockerel [kukkuta]").[7][8] However, according to a recent study,[9] "it is not known whether these birds made much contribution to the modern domestic fowl. Chickens from the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley (2500–2100 BC) may have been the main source of diffusion throughout the world." "Within the Indus Valley, indications are that chickens were used for sport and not for food" (Zeuner 1963)[10] and that by 1000 BC they had assumed "religious significance".[10]

Some additional insight into the pre-history of European and American secular cockfighting may be taken from The London Encyclopaedia:

At first cockfighting was partly a religious and partly a political institution at Athens; and was continued for improving the seeds of valor in the minds of their youth, but was afterwards perverted both there and in the other parts of Greece to a common pastime, without any political or religious intention.[11]

An early image of a fighting rooster has been found on a 6th-century BC seal of Jaazaniah from the biblical city of Mizpah in Benjamin, near Jerusalem.[12][13] Remains of these birds have been found at other Israelite Iron Age sites, when the rooster was used as a fighting bird; they are also pictured on other seals from the period as a symbol of ferocity, such as the late-7th-century BC red jasper seal inscribed "Jehoahaz, son of the king",[14][15] which likely belonged to Jehoahaz of Judah "while he was still a prince during his father's life".[16]

The anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote the influential essay Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, on the meaning of the cockfight in Balinese culture.

Bas relief of cockfighting from the Khmer Empire, 12th/13th century

Regional variations

Spurs taped and tied onto legs in East Timor

A single-edged spur (tari) used in Philippine cockfighting (c.1879)[17]

In some regional variations, the birds are equipped with either metal spurs (called gaffs) or knives, tied to the leg in the area where the bird's natural spur has been partially removed. A cockspur is a bracelet (often made of leather) with a curved, sharp spike which is attached to the leg of the bird. The spikes typically range in length from "short spurs" of just over an inch to "long spurs" almost two and a half inches long. In the highest levels of 17th century English cockfighting, the spikes were made of silver. The sharp spurs have been known to injure or even kill the bird handlers.[18] In the naked heel variation, the bird's natural spurs are left intact and sharpened: fighting is done without gaffs or taping, particularly in India (especially in Tamil Nadu). There it is mostly fought naked heel and either three rounds of twenty minutes with a gap of again twenty minutes or four rounds of fifteen minutes each and a gap of fifteen minutes between them.[19]

Cockfighting is common throughout Southeast Asia, where it is implicated in spreading bird flu.[20][21] Cockfighting is a popular form of fertility worship in Southeast Asia.[22]

India

The sport of cockfighting has long been outlawed in India, with the Supreme Court proclaiming the practice to be in direct violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960.[23] According to M Ravindranath Babu Superintendent, Indian Police, it is also considered a hijack of traditional festivals to promote illegal betting and gambling. Despite this, institutional resistance to government bans on cockfighting occurs. At India's ‘Sun God’ festival in 2012, the local Bharatiya Janata Party district committee campaigned for the right to have cock-fights. This was then agreed by local police if it took place inside the temples.[24]

Indonesia

Confronting two cocks for tabuh rah ritual tajen (fighting) in Bali, Indonesia, 1971

Cockfighting is a very old tradition in Balinese Hinduism, the Batur Bang Inscriptions I (from the year 933) and the Batuan Inscription (dated 944 on the Balinese Caka calendar) disclose that the tabuh rah ritual has existed for centuries.[25]

In Bali, cockfights, known as tajen, are practiced in an ancient religious purification ritual to expel evil spirits.[26] This ritual, a form of animal sacrifice, is called tabuh rah ("pouring blood").[27] The purpose of tabuh rah is to provide an offering (the blood of the losing chicken) to the evil spirits. Cockfighting is a religious obligation at every Balinese temple festival or religious ceremony.[28] Cockfights without a religious purpose are considered gambling in Indonesia, although it is still largely practiced in many parts of Indonesia. Women are generally not involved in the tabuh rah process. The tabuh rah process is held on the largest pavilion in a Balinese temple complex, the wantilan.

The American anthropologist Clifford Geertz published his most famous work, Notes on the Balinese Cockfight, on the practice of cockfights in Bali. In it, he argued that the cockfight served as a pastiche or model of wider Balinese society from which judgments about other aspects of the culture could be drawn.

Philippines

World Gamefowl Expo 2014, World Trade Center Metro Manila

Cockfighting, locally termed sabong, is a popular pastime in the Philippines, where both illegal and legal cockfights occur. Legal cockfights are held in cockpits every week, whilst illegal ones, called tupada or tigbakay, are held in secluded cockpits where authorities cannot raid them. In both types, knives or gaffs are used. There are two kinds of knives used in Philippine cockfighting: single-edged blades (used in derbies) and double-edged blades; lengths of knives also vary. All knives are attached on the left leg of the bird, but depending on agreement between owners, blades can be attached on the right or even on both legs. Sabong and illegal tupada, are judged by a referee called sentensyador or koyme, whose verdict is final and not subject to any appeal.[29] Bets are usually taken by the kristo, so named because of his outstretched hands when calling out wagers from the audience from memory.

The country has hosted several World Slasher Cup derbies, held biannually at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, Quezon City, where the world's leading game fowl breeders gather. World Slasher Cup is also known as the "Olympics of Cockfighting". The World Gamefowl Expo 2014 was held in the World Trade Center Metro Manila.

Cockfighting was already flourishing in pre-colonial Philippines, as recorded by Antonio Pigafetta, the Italian diarist aboard Ferdinand Magellan’s 1521 expedition.[30] Cockfighting in the Philippines is derived from the fact that it shares elements of Indian and other Southeast Asian cultures, where the jungle fowl (bankivoid) and Oriental type of chicken are endemic.

Other bird species

Male saffron finches[31] and canaries have been used in fights on occasion.[32]

Legal status

Cockfighting laws around the world.

Nationwide ban on cockfighting

Nationwide ban on cockfighting, but some designated local traditions exempted

Some subnational bans on cockfighting

Cockfighting legal

No data

Argentina

Article 3.8 of Law 14.346 on the Ill-Treatment and Acts of Cruelty to Animals of 1954 explicitly prohibits 'carrying out public or private acts of animal fights, fights of bulls and heifers, or parodies [thereof], in which animals are killed, wounded or harassed.'[33]

Australia

Cockfighting, and the possession of cockfighting equipment, is illegal in Australia.[34][35]

Belgium

In Belgium, cockfights have been prohibited in 1867. In 1929 all organised fights between animals were banned. In 1986 and 1991, the animal welfare act was amended by also criminalising attendance of cockfights. Offenders risk six months imprisonment and a fine of 2,000 euros. Since the 1990s, several people have been prosecuted for cockfighting.[36]

Brazil

Cockfighting (rinha de galos) was banned in 1934 with the help of President Getúlio Vargas through Brazil's 1934 constitution, passed on 16 July. Based on the recognition of animals in the Constitution, a Brazilian Supreme Court ruling resulted in the ban of animal related activities that involve claimed "animal suffering such as cockfighting, and a tradition practiced in southern Brazil, known as 'Farra do Boi' (the Oxen Festival)",[37] stating that "animals also have the right to legal protection against mistreatment and suffering".[38]

Chile

Chilean Law no. 20.380 on Animal Protection of 25 August 2009 explicitly exempts various forms of 'animal sports' in Article 16: 'The norms of this law will not apply to sports in which animals participate, such as rodeo, cowfights, movement to the rein and equestrian sports, which will be governed by their respective regulations.'[39]

Colombia

In Colombia, cockfighting is a tradition, especially in the Caribbean region and in some areas of the Andean interior. Cockfights are held during the Festival de la Leyenda Vallenata in Valledupar. In August 2010, the Constitutional Court of Colombia rejected a lawsuit that sought to prohibit bullfighting, corralejas and cockfighting with the argument that they constitute animal abuse. In March 2019, the same court confirmed such rule, under the argument that cockfighting and bullfighting are traditions with cultural roots in some municipalities of the country.[40] The Asociación Nacional de Criadores de Gallos de Pelea organizes an international cockfighting championship.[41]

Cockfighting was immortalized in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, in episodes such as the events that led to the death of Prudencio Aguilar, or the fondness for it by José Arcadio Segundo. Cockfighting was one of the main subjects of La Caponera, a TV adaptation of Juan Rulfo's novel, El gallo de oro, aired in Colombia and other countries in the region during the late 90s.

Costa Rica

Cockfights have been illegal in Costa Rica since 1922.[42] The government deems the activity as animal cruelty, public disorder and a risk for public health and is routinely repressed by the State's National Secretary for Animal Welfare.[43] The activity is also rejected by most of the population, as 88% of Costa Ricans dislike cockfights according to recent polls of the National University.[44] Since 2017, the activity is punishable with up to two years of prison.[45]

Cuba

In Cuba, cockfighting is legal and popular, although gambling on matches has been banned since the 1959 Revolution.[46][47] The state has opened official arenas, including a 1,000-seat venue in Ciego de Ávila, but there are also banned underground cockfighting pits.[47]

Cockfighting was so common during the Cuban colonization by Spain that there were arenas in every urban and rural town. The first official known document about cockfighting in Cuba dates from 1737. It is a royal decree asking, to the governor of the island, a report about the inconveniences that might cause cockfights "with the people from land and sea" and asking for information about rentals of the games. The Spaniard Miguel Tacón, Lieutenant General and governor of the colony, banned cockfighting by a decree dated on October 20, 1835, limiting these spectacles only to holidays.

In 1844, a decree dictated by the Captain General of the island, Leopoldo O'Donnell, forbade to non-white people the attendance to these shows. During the second half of the 19th century, many authorizations were conceded for building arenas, until General Juan Rius Rivera, then civilian governor in Havana, prohibited cockfighting by a decree of October 31, 1899, and later the Cuban governor, General Leonard Wood, dictated the military order no. 165 prohibiting cockfights in the whole country since June 1, 1900.[48]

In the first half of the 20th century, legality of cockfights suffered several ups and downs.[49]

In 1909, the then-Cuban president José Miguel Gómez, with the intention to gain followers, allowed cockfights once again, and then regulations were agreed for the fights.[50]

Up to the beginning of 1968, cockfights used to be held everywhere in the country, but with the purpose of stopping the bets, the arenas were closed and the fights forbidden by the authorities. In 1980, authorities legalized cockfights again and a state business organization was created with the participation of the private breeders, grouped in territories. Every year the state organization announces several national tournaments from January to April, makes trade shows and sells fighting cocks to clients from other Caribbean countries.[48]

Dominican Republic

In the Dominican Republic, cockfighting is legal, but according to Dominican Today 'increasingly rejected by society' as of December 2018.[51] There is at least one arena (gallera) in every town, whereas in bigger cities larger coliseos can be found. Important fights are broadcast on television and newspapers have dedicated pages to cockfights and the different trabas, the local name for gamefowl breeding grounds. Those dedicated to the breeding and training of fighting cocks are called galleros or traberos. The cocks are often outfitted with special spurs made from various materials (ranging from plastic to metal or even carey shell) and fights are typically to the death. Public perception of the sport is as normal as that of baseball or any other major sport.

France

Holding cockfights is a crime in France, but there is an exemption under subparagraph 3 of article 521–1 of the French penal code for cockfights and bullfights in locales where an uninterrupted tradition exists for them. Thus, cockfighting is allowed in the Nord-Pas de Calais region, where it takes place in a small number of towns including Raimbeaucourt, La Bistade[52] and other villages around Lille.[53] However, the construction of new cockfighting areas is prohibited, a law upheld by the Constitutional Council of France in 2015.[54]

Cockfighting is also legal in some French Overseas Territories.[54]

Haiti

Cockfighting is legal in Haiti. Nevins (2015) described it as 'the closest thing to a national sport in Haiti', being organised every Sunday morning in places across the country. Sharp spurs are attached to the roosters' feet to make them extra lethal, and the fight usually ends with the death of one of the animals.[55]

Honduras

In Honduras, under Article 11 of 'Decree no. 115-2015 ─ Animal Protection and Welfare Act' that went into effect in 2016, dog and cat fights and duck races are prohibited, while 'bullfighting shows and cockfights are part of the National Folklore and as such allowed'.[56]