Pro Cockfighting article

[Dufaeth]

Did anyone else see this ridiculously pro cockfighting article in the Tennessean yesterday?

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050619/NEWS01/506190394


"I love and admire the courage of these birds," said Ben Taylor, whose family has been raising game fowl in Cocke County for generations. "They will fight each other even when they're dying. It becomes a part of you and a part of your soul, and it kills me when I lose one of them."


and the opposition(WTF????)

<<<<Lynda Thomas of Newport, a member of the Humane Society, said she is against cockfighting but believes the fighting roosters in Cocke County lead better lives than chickens bred for meat and eggs.

"There are a lot worse things that go on in chicken processing plants and egg farms, and I bet a lot of people who are against cockfighting aren't going to give up eating chicken and eggs," she said. "You can't legislate morality."

Talk about fair and balanced.

[sasquatch]

1. "Cockfighting" and "You can't legislate morals" from TENNESSEE!!

:rofl:
AAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!
These dumb motherfuckers are killing me.

[fasttense]

2. I know a lot of people from Cocke county

and they feel outrage for the raid and the killing of over 300 roosters. I don't agree with them, just pointing out their opinions.

I didn't find out until later that they killed all the roosters. I asked (being the novice to cockfighting that I am) why they couldn't find homes for the poor birds. I was told that the cocks were large and dangerous. That they would attack humans as quickly as they attack other roosters. Seems such a waste of a beautifully bird, kill or be killed.

[Jackson4Gore]

3. Cockfighters need to get a life

Not only is it inhumane, but just plain redneck. If you want to inflict pain somehow, lace up the ole boxing gloves and get your own butt into the ring.

[Warpy]

4. They are trained to be as aggressive as possible

and to attack anything that comes near them. Trainers do things like feed them raw meat (certainly NOT a natural food for them) and harass them while they're eating, producing a very aggressive bird.

Roosters have spurs on their feet and cockfighters enhance those with sharpened metal gadgets.

So no, there was no place for these birds as pets. They were far too aggressive. It's hard to know what the birds wanted, the choice being between being put down humanely or going out in a blaze of blood and pain and possibly glory. Certainly nobody forced birds raised to be aggressive to fight.

I live in one of the only states to allow cockfighting and the old Hispanos and some of the rednecks cling to it as some sort of cultural icon, the way Spain and Mexico cling to bullfighting, both brutal sports. They've only recently made dog fighting illegal here.

The best way to get animal rights people off their backs would seem to be putting down badly injured birds immediately, instead of just tossing them into a corner and allowing them to suffer and die slowly.

It's one of those things that will never be eliminated, especially in this culture, but is wide open to regulation. Sometimes regulation is the best we can do. An attempt to prohibit will just drive it underground where regulation can't touch it.