An Introduction on Cockfighting

Cockfighting, the contesting of specially bred male chickens, is a blood sport, that subset of sports heavily reliant on the likelihood of injury, bloodletting, or death. In cockfighting, throughout its many variations, the bird acts as a surrogate for the owner or handler. While wagers may ride on the performance of a particular rooster, the communal display of virile zeal is more important.

From this perspective, the human participant in a cockfight, in spite of the obvious violence, views himor herself (more frequently him) as taking part in a sport, not engaging in animal cruelty. In his wellknown study of Balinese cockfighting, Clifford Geertz explores the notion that cockfighting reflects the basest component of humanity. Yet he shows too that cockfighting is multifaceted, with elements that extend beyond the gory spectacle.

History

The chicken’s history is considerably more glorious than its present. Thought to be prophetic, the chicken bird was pampered, cultivated, and desired both for its special relationship with the sun and as a provider of magic-laden plumes.Partly for this reason, the keeping of chickens, though not necessarily for food, spread from Southeast Asia through much of Africa, up through Iran, and through many Pacific islands. Longago Aryan invaders of India learned to enjoy cockfights and held the birds in great esteem. By 1000 B.C.E. they forbade any peoples under their control to eat chicken. Evidence shows that the birds were raised, presumably for sport and ritual, by the Celts, Gauls, and ancient Britons.Chickens were reportedly introduced into Greece about 524–460 B.C.E. with the associated sport spreading throughout Asia Minor and Sicily. From Rome, the pastime moved northward and became popular throughout Italy, Germany, Spain and its eventual colonies, and through England,Wales, and Scotland. In some areas, especially among maritime nations quick to see the advantages, fowl were reared for food. Chickens could well endure the life at sea and provided fresh meat and eggs, but were also used to forecast the future and for entertainment.

Cockfighting is so old and widely distributed that examples of its imprint on language, design, and decoration are easy to find. In today’s English language, examples include the words “cock’s egg,” a malformed egg, and “cockney,” a “malformed” variation of the English accent. Because of roosters’ image of pugnacity and courage, an insouciant fellow may be called a “coxcomb” and an overconfident person “cocky” or “cocksure.” A disappointed person may be described as “crestfallen.”

The magic quality of the cock greeting the dawn is evidenced by the rooster-shaped windvanes and weathervanes that grace so many barns and homes. Since antiquity, images and language using the cock motif have been commonplace when trying to convey ideas related to courage, durability,magic, robustness, patriotism, and aggressiveness. The cock is virtually the national symbol of France, and is frequently used on clothing and other advertising.

Rules and Play

Cockfighting is very widespread and exists in several forms. Depending on geography, cocks fight “bareheeled,” with attached blades, or with “spurs,” “harpoons,” or “gaffs.”Tools attached to the fowl for the fight may be made from ivory, tortoise shell, bone, specially prepared chicken spurs (superimposed over the bird’s normal one), plastic, brass, and even alloy cut from jet turbine engine blades.And there are “boxing” events in which the fowl’s real spur is covered by padded “gloves” to keep from severely injuring his opponent.

Cockfighting is still an important pastime available across America,Europe, and elsewhere.Magazines cater to enthusiasts, and several craftspeople, like specialist

jewelers, fabricate the blades, gaffs, and harpoons used in the bouts. Though certainly part of a fringe entertainment in most of the West, cockfighting provides a sound enough infrastructure to support a number of businesses. In some areas of the world the sport is fully engaged in the economy, much as baseball is in the United States.

Descriptions of cockfights around the world suggest much general similarity in rules and play. Although there are local, regional, and national differences, cockfights around the world have a number of common features.Common structural features include the differential valuation of different categories of fights, a regional basis for betting, betting being an integral part of virtually every fight,protocol enforced regarding the wagering and the performance of the cock handlers, and, usually, an attempt to match fowl in some reasonable way (usually by size). In addition, cockfights usually progress through a predictable series of steps: (1) bout preliminaries including picking cocks, prepping them, and showing them to the crowd and competition; (2) the business of betting; (3) placing the cocks in the ring and the almost invariable fighting that follows; (4) resolution of bets; and (5) initiation of the next bout. The fight itself continues until one of the cocks is killed or is so injured that it cannot continue. It seems that the goal is not for one cock to kill the other, but for the birds to display “heart” and gameness.

A Louisiana Cockfight

The southern Louisiana cockfights observed by the author took place in a very new cockpit that had been near a small, rural complex containing a horse track, bars, and small restaurants. The contemporary-style metal quick-fab building featured basic bleachers and a simple bar. The pit building fronted a large parking area and boasted an attractive, well-lit sign with its name and the word “cockpit” prominently displayed. Nothing about the situation seemed furtive, although other pits are frequently in out-of-the-way locations. The pit was assembled from metal reinforcing-bar and hardware cloth. The ring or pit was raised slightly above the surrounding earth. Concrete covered most of the area, but not the pit or a small rectangular area into which dead chickens were tossed and in which the heel attachments were put on. There were both a main pit and a “drag” pit available where long or unusual fights could be finished.

The birds, which are lavished with attention and generally fed special meals as part of the preparation, were kept in custom-built individual carriers.Matches were made among the breeders and owners. The game cocks were informally presented to the crowd. Wagering, clearly important to the event, generally occurs at this point. Bets may be trivial—buying the next round of drinks—but overall the event was a form of “serious play.” The fights between evenly matched birds are straightforward, but are also part of a variety of competition patterns. Each region offers particular styles of organizing the matches, including informal pairs, derbies, melees, and other increasingly complex forms.

Before each fight, the contestants were examined by an “official” who looked under the wings and into the eyes, shook the game cock, and thrust a lemon down over each spur to verify that the weapon was well attached and sturdy. Last, the official wet a cotton ball and wiped down the metal weapons. He squeezed the remaining water into the cock’s mouth and discarded the ball. The cocks were then paired by weight and weapon. Their attachments are designed to be uniform for a fair event, not to be more brutal, as is sometimes claimed.The weapons may be edged so they can both slash and pierce. In Louisiana these competitors are called “slashers.”Gaff cockers claim the slashers are less sophisticated and more brutal.

Once in the pit area, the fighting cocks quickly assume their combat positions, with feathers out and chest forward. Beady eyes glinting, the competitors clash after a few cackled threats. Their strikes are extraordinarily fast. The target is clearly the opponent’s head, which involves leaping up, twisting around, and stabbing backward with the metal spurs or other heel appliance. Often the exchange continues until one bird is dead. At that point the winner may also be in poor condition, possibly having been gouged in the eyes or repeatedly stabbed in the head,body, and wings. Sometimes if a bird is “chicken” the match is ceded and the appropriate neck wrung. Most fights are fast, but long bouts are not unusual.These involve lengthy periods of one of the birds chasing his opponent around and around the ring—a standoff resolved either by one bird’s sudden action or by an owner stopping the match. As their courage ebbs and flows, the birds fluff up for the attack or smooth down to try to escape. Participants in cockfighting events often openly show adoration for their birds, fondling, petting, and cooing soothingly to them.Because the game fowl’s raison d’être is to seek dominance among his kind, cockfighters see their role as a positive one of support, not a negative one of predatory delight in the fights. Cockfighters believe their birds are happiest when allowed to exhibit prowess in the fight, contesting the ground with a fairly matched opponent.

Depending on your point of view, the cocker is not a rebel but a traditionalist. The modern cocker, considered a pariah in many circles, is subjected to increasing pressure to conform to the different, though not necessarily more salubrious, values and behaviors of his or her antagonists.When opponents of cockfighting call participants barbarians, villains, scofflaws, and so on, they valorize the pursuit in some people’s minds. The journals serving the fraternity are saturated with descriptions of participants as “good men,”“the best sort of man,”“a man’s man,” and so on. It is easy to get the implication about nonparticipants.