Thursday, February 17, 2011

Peleas de Gallos

I recently came across two articles looking at cock fighting. Each article had a different take on the idea. The one article came from the Humane Society, this article had a very anti-cock fighting spin. They claimed that, "cockfighting often goes hand in hand with gambling, drug dealing, illegal gun sales, and murder." Now why I feel that cock fighting is not that humane, I feel that the stretch to say that murder derived from cock fighting is a very far-fetched idea. The other article came from a Mexican online newpaper, called Mexconnect. This article was very pro-cock fighting as it is a intregal part of Mexican society. They birds according to this article were extremely taken care of by their masters. The article talks about their appearance and how they were taken care of, "Proud iridescent blue-black tail feathers glowing, bright and sleek copper-bodied, wattles and combs trimmed." They had very human like qualities when fighting as they jockeyed for position like boxers in a ring. The birds also look out for themselves as when they both don't feel like fighting they will hang back and wait for the bell to sound.

These birds were much like the gladiators of ancient times. They were forced into competition that fought to the death. These birds are very large physical specimens, just as the gladiator were. In the article from Mexconnect, the author talks about how the roosters are breed from a variety of birds to produce the strongest, fastest birds.

"Not every rooster has the right stuff to become a fighting cock. Bred from strains of Hatch, Claret, Black, Round Head and White Hackel for height, strength, speed and "gameness," or the ability to stay and fight instead of surrendering, a prize fighting cock may sell for as much as five thousand dollars."
  

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