According to bbc.co.uk/news, the vote took place as the result of a petition brought to parliament, signed by 180,000 people who say the practice is barbaric and outdated. The campaign was led by the animal rights lobby group Prou! (Enough!) who argues it is cruel and unacceptable and says most spectators in Catalonia these days are tourists. However, bullfight supporters insist that the corrida, as it is known, is an important tradition to preserve.They also fear the vote could be the first of many in the country.
Bullfighting is also widespread in Latin America. The Plaza Mexico arena in Mexico City is the biggest in the world, seating up to 55,000 spectators. One of the oldest is the 18th-Century Plaza de Acho in Lima, Peru. BBC.CO.UK/news mentioned one of the most famous fans of bullfighting was the US writer Ernest Hemingway, who celebrated the tradition in his book Death in the Afternoon.
It makes me think of another kind of entertainment for human which involves blood and lives of animals: Cockfighting—a bloody sport in which roosters are placed in a ring and forced to fight to the death for the "amusement" of onlookers. Even though it's illegal in many places but around the world cockfighting is still a popular local entertainment such as South East Asia, India, Pacific Islands, and Latin America. Each year, it's estimated that millions of roosters die from cockfighting.
According to PETA.org, roosters are born, raised, and trained to fight on "game farms." Breeders (also called "cockers") kill the birds they deem inferior, keeping only the birds who are "game" - willing to fight. Many of these birds spend most of their lives tethered by one leg near inadequate shelter, such as a plastic barrel or a small wire cage. Breeders "condition" the birds to fight through physical work, including attaching weights to roosters' legs, and "practice fights" with other roosters.
Breeders often pluck the birds' feathers and hack off the roosters' waddles and/or combs (the flesh at the top of their heads and under their beaks) with shears to prevent other roosters from tearing them off in the ring. Since roosters do not have sweat glands, losing these body parts deprives them of the ability to cool themselves. Some "cockers" cut off the birds' spurs, which are natural bony protrusions on the legs, so that more deadly, artificial weapons can be strapped to their legs.
What Happens at Cockfights ?
From PETA.org website, cockfights are usually held in round or square enclosures called "cockpits," or simply, "pits." According to one eyewitness, "With neck feathers fanned and wings whirring, the birds jump and parry at each other. They kick and duel in mid-air, striking at each other with feet and beak." If the fighting wanes, handlers pick up the birds and blow on their backs, yank at their beaks, or hold them beak-to-beak in an attempt to "reignite the frenzy." The birds are then re-pitted, and the fight doesn’t end until one rooster is dead or nearly dead. "Losing" birds are often discarded in a barrel or trash can near the game pit, even while they are still alive !Some months ago, I was watching the re-run of August 2009's "Luke Gamble's Vet Adventures" on Sky TV (for more of his charitable and incredible life-saving stories, go to www.vetadventures.tv). As you may already know, the Dorset-born veterinarian, through his charity WVS (Worldwide Veterinary Service), teams up with good-willed organisations and individuals in remote locations who need help with their animals. He went to Chiang Mai, Thailand and somewhere remotely up on the mountain of the hill tribes. Luke wrote on the website under the Buddhist Monk: Saviour of Chickens, that it's the most interesting case of the day to meet a Buddhist monk who has lived at the top of the mountain for the last three years and looks after injured chickens that he rescues after chicken fights in the villages.
On that day, the monk showed him this seriously-injured rooster who was saved after being fatally attacked from a cockfight and still had a claw of the other rooster buried into his body since the time of the fight. Luke helped remove an embedded claw from the rooster's chest, which was completely walled off inside it and he said he'd never seen anything quite like it. He was absolutely amazed at what he removed. He wrote that "at first I didn’t want to cut into the swelling because I was convinced it must be a bit of bone from an old break. The monk knew otherwise and encouraged me to do so – he had seen it before. Realising he had probably treated many chickens in this condition, I trusted him and incised down to the mass. The reason he couldn’t remove that particular claw was when they were deep in the muscle he had no way of closing wounds afterwards and lacked the forceps to probe around. I donated a pair of crocodile forceps to his cause and a few meds
So, now the big question is "What can we do about this ? " Of course, there're ways that we can help stop the cruelty of human exploiting animals for entertainment. We may simply start from creating awareness within the family, among friends, and educating the children from young in the society level, of why we, as human being, absolutely have no rights to ill-treat animals and put them in the deadly condition just for our own amusement. Moreover, these blood sports always come hand-in-hand with gambling, of which its effects and consequence are as deadly as killing but perhaps it shows in more complicate forms.
Together, we are able to put an end to this and let's hope that the Catalonia's bans are the beginning of the end of animal-fighting games.
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