COCK FIGHTING

Grey River Argus, 13 August 1937, Page 3

COCK FIGHTING

ILLEGAL SPORT IN ENGLAND. . SALISBURY PLAIN CONTESTS. ! LONDON, July 17. Cock-fighting, illegal in England cince 1849, is being practised on Salisbury Plain. Gamecocks are in training within eight miles of Salisbury and there is a gamecock hospital with everything in readiness for the reception of birds injured during fighting. A contest is arranged during each Sunday 7 morning, but no one will disclose where it is to be held. Carloads of men arrive from London and when -they reach a certain point on the plain discreet signals are given byscouts to indicate where the fights the to be held. Ordinary motorists who see the signals think nothing of them. Only those who know what the signals mean turn off the main road to the isolated barn where the fights takeplace. The following the contest will be in an entirely different part of the plain. The organisers are taking no chance of a police raid. It is understood that the “mains” are organised by cock-fighting promoters from the North of England. Owing to the efforts of the police to stamp out the sport, they have had to leave their favourite spots in the Yorkshire dales and come south. Peers, retired officers, farmers, millers, shopkeepers, all rub shoulders with each other at the ringside. Inspectors of the Royal Society tor the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals disguised as countrymen will attempt to “gate-crash” at the fights.