Cock throwing

A rooster was tied to a post, and people took turns throwing weighted sticks called "coksteles" at the bird until it died.

If the bird had its legs broken or was lamed during the event, it was sometimes supported with sticks in order to prolong the game.

[4] Cock throwing's popularity slowly waned in England, as social values changed and animal welfare became a concern.

The Anglican divine and political economist Josiah Tucker also dismissed the sport as a "most cruel and barbarous diversion' in his 'Earnest and Affectionate Address to the Common People of England Concerning their Usual Recreations on Shrove Tuesday' (1753), drawing attention to the suffering and 'lingering tortures' of a 'poor innocent creature'.

From the middle of the 18th century, magistrates began to deal with the problem more harshly, a marker of its loss in popularity among the "respectable" classes, imposing fines for public order offences, and local by-laws banned the practice in many places.