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Cock and Bull Story
Bull & buffalo fights are very famous down the
south of Thailand and often featured in Red Bull commercials,
but for cockfighting you can see almost anywhere in
Thailand, especially in the rural areas. Even
spiders and fish are used for fighting e.g. the Siamese
Fighting Fish. People really enjoy watching
& gambling. |
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Buffalo Fights
Unlike what is the case in bull fights in Spain, its
bull fighting bull in southern Thailand. On Samui Island, such bull fights are held only on special occasions such as
New Year Day and during
Songkran, April 13 to 16 (they are held more often in Hat Yai). The buffaloes are decorated with
jazzy ribbons and
gold leafs on their horns.
Holy water is used to bless the bulls before the fights. On bull fight days, two rounds are organized, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
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Bull-Fighting
Around the southern city of "Hat Yai" can be found a form of bull-fighting distinct from the well-known Spanish version. It is thought that as long ago as the Srivijayan period, farmers encouraged their bulls to literally "lock horns" with each other for some sport. The farmers bring their animals into in the ring and encourage them to meet each other head-on. People have a peripheral role compare to that of the Spanish bullfighters as one bull tries to push back another in an even contest.
Now a day, there are bullfights every Sunday at various locations around Songkhla province. Hat Yai takes its turn on the first Sunday of each month t Khlong Wa stadium near the city bus terminal.
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Cockfighting
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Sport of pitting gamecocks against one other. Though popular in ancient Greece, Persia, and Rome, cockfighting has been long opposed by clergy and humane groups. Massachusetts passed (1836) the first law in the United States forbidding cockfighting; England banned it in 1849. Cockfighting jousts take place in a small circular pit into which the gamecocks—specially bred and trained for fighting—are placed beak to beak by their handlers and then released. A combatant wins when its opponent is unable to fight, or is killed. Metal spurs, occasionally attached to the fowl's natural spurs, make action deadlier. The sport is still popular in Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and the Middle East, and—despite its illegality—parts of the United States. It is nearly always the focus of frenzied gambling, as anthropologist Clifford Geertz noted in his famous study on the Balinese cockfight (1973).
A cockfight is a contest held in a cockpit between two gamecocks. Gamecocks are not typical farm chickens. The roosters are specially bred and trained for increased stamina and strength. Sometimes, they are given drugs to better their chances of winning. They possess an inherent aggression toward all males of the same species, but have to be trained to fight as they do. Cockfighting is considered a traditional sporting event by some, and an example of animal cruelty by others. Usually wagers are made on the outcome of the match, with the surviving or last-bird-standing being declared the winner.
It is interesting to note that Abraham Lincoln may have gotten his nickname, "Honest Abe," by officiating cockfights fairly.
In some regional variations, the birds are equipped with either gaffs or knives tied to the leg in the area where the bird's natural spur has been removed. A
cockspur is a bracelet (often made of leather) with a curved, sharp spike which is attached to the leg of the bird. The spikes typically range in length from "short spurs" of just over an inch to "long spurs" almost two and one half inches long. In the highest levels of seventeenth century English cockfighting, the spikes could be made of silver. In other variations, the bird's natural spurs are left intact. Fighting done without gaffs or taping is called “naked heel” and can continue for many hours.
The rules were drafted by the Thai Native Chicken Conservation and Development Association for what was billed as the First International Amateur Cockfighting Competition, held before a packed arena on Thailand's southeast coast and broadcast live on national television.
"For several hundred years, these birds have been fighting each other to the death,'' said Dhanin Chearavanont, president of Charoen Popkhand Group, one of the world's largest poultry producers. "The association wants to change all that.''
The C.P. Group, rivaled as an international poultry giant only by Tyson Foods Inc., financed the creation of the association two years ago to preserve the native chicken species, from which the aggressive fighting cocks are bred.
The cocks battled in classes ranging from strawweight - 6.38 pounds - to heavyweight at above 8.77 pounds.
Lethal metal spikes on the legs and razor blades on the wings have been forbidden. So were steroids, stimulants and depressants.
The match now ends if a cock runs away three consecutive times, is unable to keep a fighting stance, suffers a broken bone, loses sight in one eye, or bleeds continuously from a cut.
"The idea is to reduce the cases of torture and maltreatment,'' said Dr. Paiboon Brunarugsa, the veterinarian who drafted the rules. "But these cocks fight naturally, from the age of three months. At the age of eight months, they're fighting their fathers.''
Even with the new rules, cockfighting is still a rough sport. Although their natural spurs are covered with gloves, the birds instinctively leap at each other and slash each other's chests, heads and backs with their powerful legs and beaks. Blinding is a constant risk. The back of each rooster is often featherless and gouged from repeated blows.
The match lasts five 15-minute rounds - and the judges don't even start awarding points until the last two, after the birds exhaust their initial flurry of blows.
In the three-minute pauses, the trainers wet down their fighter's feathers, shove tail plumes down their throats to clean out sputum, and suck on the coxcombs to lift off blood and make the bird more alert. Gambling was banned - owners made money by auctioning their birds after a bout, earning up to $600 - but the sport is inseparable from gambling in Asian culture. Every one of Thailand's 76 provinces has a legal, weekly cockfighting event.
Animal-rights activists dismissed attempts to clean up the sport.
"If you did not have gambling, you would not have cockfighting,'' said Roger Lohanon, head of the Thai Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. "We should be ashamed we still have cockfighting in this country. It's like slavery - just because our ancestors did it doesn't mean we should.''
The association claims that raising indigenous chickens, which scratch for bugs and grains in farmyards, can help poor Thai farmers. Exports of fighting birds to other countries are a $2.7 million annual business.
Zhao Sha Fu, a Chinese fighting cock owner, said he would never eat a dead fighting bird because it would show disrespect to a 4,000-year-old breed. "In China, the cock is about strength,'' Zhao said. "We bury our birds. They are like our friends.''
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