By Nick Engelfried
In a secluded alley, two roosters face each other, both full of rage. The birds have been specially bred for traits that encourage aggression, and may also have been given steroids or vitamins that promote violent behavior. Their natural fighting instincts are made more dangerous by the sharp metal blades strapped to their feet. As soon as they are no longer restrained, the birds leap at each other, quickly inflicting serious damage. It’s likely one or both of them will be dead when the fight is over.

This grim scene is typical of what happens at a cockfighting event, a cruel blood sport that pits male chickens against each other in life-and-death struggles for human entertainment. Although the practice is outlawed everywhere in the U.S., cockfighting still persists in this and other countries. Partly, this is because the sport has become a big business tied to gambling, gang violence, and other illegal activities.

So, what exactly is cockfighting? Like dogfighting, it is a “sport” that capitalizes on the aggressive instincts animals will naturally act on when they feel challenged. Two animals are placed together under artificial conditions that encourage aggression where they are made to fight–sometimes, to the death. Thousands of dollars may ride on the outcome of the fight as spectators bet on which combatant will win.

In the case of cockfighting, the animals involved are roosters. While they normally exhibit a certain amount of aggression toward other male chickens, under normal conditions roosters seldom if ever fight to the point of inflicting lethal harm. Rather, they engage in skirmishes that establish a dominance hierarchy without causing serious damage to either participant. However, cockfighting transforms these dominance struggles into something far more deadly by manipulating the behavior of roosters in multiple ways.

First, the roosters used for cockfighting are generally bred specifically for aggression, producing birds with an enhanced tendency to fight. They may also be given special diets that include steroids, which are meant to make them even more prone to violence. Finally, cockfighting the roosters’ natural fighting tools–the “spur” on each of his legs–is artificially transformed into a sharp and deadly weapon.

In fact, roosters used for cockfighting endure multiple painful modifications before they engage in combat. In most cases, the birds’ fleshy wattles are “dubbed,” or cut off when they are only months old, so this vulnerable part of their anatomy cannot be targeted in a fight. Part of each foot spur is also cut off and replaced with a knife-like blade or “gaffe” attached near the bird’s ankle. The goal is to transform the rooster into a killing machine designed to inflict maximum harm on an opponent.

As they mature, cockfighting birds are trained to fight, so when they are finally placed in front of another rooster in a contest they will go straight for the kill. Usually, fighting to the death isn’t strictly required under the rules of cockfighting–one bird simply has to subdue the other–but the reality is one or both combatants are likely to die from wounds they sustain during the ordeal.

All of this raises the question of how such a cruel tradition as cockfighting ever got started? And why has it proved so enduring, despite being outlawed in the U.S. and many other places?

As it turns out, cockfighting is a practice that dates back thousands of years to a time when most people thought about animal welfare very differently from many of us today. Chickens were first domesticated in Asia, so it’s unsurprising that some of the earliest records of cockfighting come from places like ancient Persia and India. Originally, cockfighting in these countries appears to have been tied to religious rituals.

By around the 5th century BCE, cockfighting had spread to become established in Europe and North Africa, including in Greece and Egypt. It proved popular in ancient Rome, where pitting animals and even humans against each other in deadly combat was a common spectator sport. Over the centuries, cockfighting evolved from a religious practice into just another form of entertainment.

Today, cockfighting is usually practiced out of sight of the public, and is often closely associated with drugs, violence, and gambling. When spectators bet thousands of dollars on the outcoming of cockfighting contests, the blood sport becomes a highly lucrative illegal enterprise that powerful people have a stake in continuing.

It is important to note that, while cockfighting may be associated with gangs or other groups engaged in a variety of illegal activities, it’s impossible to predict who will be involved. Law enforcement officers who bust cockfighting rings have emphasized that the sport draws in people from many different walks of life and social classes. Perpetuating stereotypes about who is likely to be part of a cockfighting enterprise isn’t helpful to anyone, and may actually make it harder to track down the real criminals.

Fortunately, today cockfighting is widely recognized as a tradition that must be relegated to the past. It is illegal in every U.S. state and many European countries–but the fact that it continues shows more resources need to be devoted to ending it once and for all. Part of the issue is that cockfights are often skillfully hidden. They are carried out in secret locations, are not publicly advertised, and can be very difficult to discover without a tip from the inside. For this reason, organizations like EndCockfighting.org have hotlines where anyone can submit an anonymous tip about suspected cockfighting activity. If you have good cause to think cockfighting is happening near you, send in a tip and help save countless roosters from a violent fate.

In the end, consigning cockfighting to history is a goal that will take the cooperation of policymakers, law enforcement, and ordinary people to achieve. It requires that this cruel blood sport be treated as the serious crime it is. Above all, it requires a cultural shift toward viewing animals as sentient beings who deserve our compassion–not as tools for making a profit.

Photo credit: Clément Bardot

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Nick Engelfried Writes About Animals, the Environment, and Conservation for the ForceChange network