Cockfighting

For a long time the Romans affected to despise this "Greek diversion", but they ended up adopting it so enthusiastically that the agricultural writer Columella (1st century AD) complained that its devotees often spent their whole patrimony in betting at the side of the pit.Based on his analysis of a Mohenjo-daro seal,[6] Iravatham Mahadevan speculates that the city's ancient name could have been Kukkutarma ("the city [-rma] of the cockerel [kukkuta]").

[12]An early image of a fighting rooster has been found on a 6th-century BC seal of Jaazaniah from the biblical city of Mizpah in Benjamin, near Jerusalem.

[19] In the naked heel variation, the bird's natural spurs are left intact and sharpened: fighting is done without gaffs or taping, particularly in India (especially in Tamil Nadu).

[23] The sport of cockfighting has long been outlawed in India, with the Supreme Court proclaiming the practice to be in direct violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960.

[24] According to M Ravindranath Babu Superintendent, Indian Police, it is also considered a hijack of traditional festivals to promote illegal betting and gambling.

At India's ‘Sun God’ festival in 2012, the local Bharatiya Janata Party district committee campaigned for the right to have cock-fights.

[24] Cockfights are currently common in the southern Indian states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka despite a countrywide ban imposed in 1960.

[45] Cockfighting was immortalized in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, in episodes such as the events that led to the death of Prudencio Aguilar, or the fondness for it by José Arcadio Segundo.

[46] Cockfighting was one of the main subjects of La caponera [es], a TV adaptation of Juan Rulfo's novel, El gallo de oro, aired in Colombia and other countries in the region during the late 90s.

[51][52] The state has opened official arenas, locally known as "galleras", including a 1,000-seat venue in Ciego de Ávila, but there are also banned underground cockfighting pits.

It is a royal decree asking, to the governor of the island, a report about the inconveniences that might cause cockfights "with the people from land and sea" and asking for information about rentals of the games.

The Spaniard Miguel Tacón, Lieutenant General and governor of the colony, banned cockfighting by a decree dated on October 20, 1835, limiting these spectacles only to holidays.

[citation needed] In 1844, a decree dictated by the Captain General of the island, Leopoldo O'Donnell, forbade non-white people to attend these shows.

[54] In 1909, the then-Cuban president José Miguel Gómez, with the intention of gaining followers, allowed cockfights once again, and then regulations were agreed for the fights.

[55] Up to the beginning of 1968, cockfights used to be held everywhere in the country, but with the purpose of stopping the bets, the arenas were closed and the fights forbidden by the authorities.

Every year the state organization announces several national tournaments from January to April, makes trade shows and sells fighting cocks to clients from other Caribbean countries.

Important fights are broadcast on television and newspapers have dedicated pages to cockfights and the different trabas, the local name for gamefowl breeding grounds.

The cocks are often outfitted with special spurs made from various materials (ranging from plastic to metal or even carey shell) and fights are typically to the death.

Thus, cockfighting is allowed in the Nord-Pas de Calais region, where it takes place in a small number of towns including Raimbeaucourt, La Bistade[58] and other villages around Lille.

115-2015 ─ Animal Protection and Welfare Act' that went into effect in 2016, dog and cat fights and duck races are prohibited, while 'bullfighting shows and cockfights are part of the National Folklore and as such allowed'.

[65] The Supreme Court of India has banned cockfighting as a violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, but it remains popular, especially in the rural coast of Andhra Pradesh, with large amount of betting involved, especially around the festival of Sankranti.

[72] Only ritual cockfighting as done for Gawai celebrations in the state of Sarawak is allowed under strict regulations;[73] licenses given however can be frozen or revoked at will by the Sarawakian government.

[81] The two parties to the bird fights are traditionally distinguished by red and green, typically by wearing a scarf or badge hanging on the belt.

Specifically: According to the Encyclopedia of Latino Culture, Peru "has probably the longest historical tradition" with cockfighting, with the practice possibly dating back to the 16th century.

[88] In October 2018, over 5,000 Peruvians signed a petition that called for a constitutional ban on "all cruel shows using animals" including cockfighting and bullfighting, which was accepted and taken into consideration by the Supreme Court of Peru.

However, with only three of the five required judges agreeing with the petition, on 25 February 2020 the Court ruled that it could not declare the animal fighting practices unconstitutional, leaving the applicants with no further option of appeal.

Payment apps like GCash have also played a crucial role, offering a convenient and secure method for placing bets and managing transactions online.

In Andalusia, however, the activity has virtually disappeared, surviving only within a program to maintain the fighting breed "combatiente español" coordinated by the University of Córdoba.

[112] On December 18, 2019, estimating that cockfighting employs 27,000 people and has a value to the economy of about $18 million, Puerto Rico passed a law attempting to keep the practice legal despite the imminent federal ban.

[114] The Supreme Court refused to hear the case, Ortiz-Diaz v. United States, in October 2021, leaving the federal ban in place.