Is It Time To Ban Cockfighting?

Written on March 26th, 2008 by nick | Posted in Culture |

Just writing that title is almost blasphemous in my family. I literally have the whole male side of my family as enthusiasts in this “sport”. Although, I may have inherited a different gene, I never had the fancy or interest in this “sport” one bit. I never liked the idea of betting on the games, nor did I even have any inclination of watching these things. It’s just not that interesting to me.

But, I’ve seen them. The dead rooster and all. The sawed off neck. The blood. The crazy bets and the fanatics wailing around their money.

There’s a recent news story in Newsweek, that reports that there is a crackdown on the game of cockfighting. And in The U.S., cockfighting isn’t so mainstream as it is in The Philippines.

“Animal fighting can certainly develop into a large criminal enterprise,” says James Mendenhall, who headed the Agriculture investigation. “The OIG will continue to pursue substantive allegations of animal fighting.

I don’t know about criminal enterprise here in The Philippines, maybe the bigger issue is animal rights. Do roosters have rights?

So, the question is, should we ban cockfighting? Is it not part of our heritage? And is it a heritage we want for our future?