MORE COCKFIGHTING

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4326, 10 August 1937, Page 7

MORE COCKFIGHTING

BARBAROUS SPORT IN BRITAIN Britain to-day has scores of cockpits where rum-maddened birds tear each other to pieces, 3'et the organisers of this secret “sport” outwit the police every time, says F. A. Beaumont, in ‘ Pearson’s Weekly.’

If you are caught inciting cocks to murder each other you may be fined anything up to £25 and costs. This hideous pastime has been illegal in Britain for over a century. And until a few years ago the authorities were so successful in stamping out “ chicken sparring ” that it became limited to occasional' furtive contests, between fanciers in mining districts, usually in the North of England. Then there came a widespread and secret revival. “ Cocking clubs ” for the breeding and matching of gamecocks began to be formed by groups of workmen and small tradesmen. Mains were organised between village and village, then county and county. Soon these arenas of flying feathers and blood were being held throughout the country from the fells of Stirlingshire to the moors of Devon. Racing men began to see money in the “ sport.” Incidentally, there has always been an affinity between racing and cockfighting. Th race programmes of a hundred years ago nearly always included cocking mains (or matches). To-day, for every major racecourse in Britain, there are at least 20 cockpits in regular use. And after many a race meeting a number of motor cars leave the racecourse to assemble again a few miles away in the seclusion of the countryside. Some of the more exclusive cocking clubs have entrance fees running into three figures. Their members include not only well-known sportsmen, but wealthy business men and professional men of the large towns. Side-stakes are sometimes as high as £SOO, and the mains are usually held in carpet-covered loose boxes or electrically-lit barns. The programme is occasionally varied by a Welsh main, in which eight pairs are matched, and the eight victors are paired; then four, and finally the last surviving pair. Or it may be a “ battle royal ” in which several birds are placed in the pit, and allowed to fight it out until only one remains. These orgies of blood attract many a fashionable society beauty, in search of a new thrill.

The R.S.P.C.A. offers £IOO for information leading to the conviction of any cockfighting promoter But so perfect is the organisation of this secret “ sport ” that there is little likelihood of the society losing any money. Since the war there have been only seven prosecutions for cockfighting in England. The last was in April, 1933. Yet so popular has the sport become that its leaders are even now arrangeing international matches with the United States and Spain. Followers of cockfighting don’t “ split.” if they did, their lives would be made a misery. Moreover, to the devotee of the sport, £IOO isn’t worm it.

Baffled in their attempts to capture the cockfighters red-handed, the authorities have tried tor years to obtain evidence that gamecocks were being bred for fighting purposes. This is now a flourishing minor industry in Britain,'and- champions fetch as much as £IOO apiece. But, here again, the police and the R.S.P.C.A. are up against a blank wall. “ The man who is found breeding fiery gamecocks can always plead, with perfect justice, that these, crossed with breeds like the Light Sussex hen, for instance, provide the best table poultry.”

For 10 days before the main the “ stag ” is fed on a mixture of breadcrumbs soaked in port wine. But during the 36 hours preceding the battle it is given no food at all. Only when the steel spurs are fitted to its legs does the ravenous bird get its fighting ration of rum and grain. The opponents are then “ presented ’ in the centre of the pit, and allowed a few pecks at each other to raise their ire. Then they are taken back to their corners. Their owners, or “ handlers, crouch and face each other awaiting the signal upon which the birds, held at arms’ length, will be released to kill! “ It is impossible to term cockfighting a sport, because the elements of sport are absent. It would be more fairly described as a revolting exhibition'of brutality,” said counsel for the R.S.P.C.A., when two men at Portsmouth were each fined £2O and costs for causing two cocks to fight, in April, 1933.