Cock Fighting
This legislative session up in Santa Fe, there’s been some hubbub, as I understand there is almost annually, over the continued legality of cock fighting in New Mexico. The arguments go something like:
- Pro: Long-standing Hispanic tradition that’s part of New Mexico culture
- Con: Evil animal cruelty, bad crowd, etc.
I have two observations:
- If this is such a wonderful part of our culture that’s so worthy of preservation, where are the billboards for local Albuquerque cockfights? Where are the webpages? Promotional radio ads? Celebrity roosters?
- I want to go see I cockfight and find out for myself — I’m totally serious. Where are they? Are they safe? Would anyone be willing to escort me to a fight?
March 2nd, 02005 at 11:26 am
I wouldn’t recommend attending a cock fight. It’s a cultural/subcultural thing that unless you were born/raised here you probably don’t and won’t feel with the same passion. And, as most subcultural things go, it is fraught with the sort of vices that could, at worst, compromise your professional career, or, at best, stymie your ability to pilot your car back home. While I am no friend to the animals and am pleased to be firmly established as higher in the food chain, I view dog fighting, the dog-killing-rats-competitions, the tying-cats’-tails-together-and-hanging them-over-a-wire games, to a certain degree bull fighting, and any other activity that knowingly pits animals (Note: animals that are conditioned over time towards cruelty) against each other is nothing short of wasteful. Cultural or otherwise, it is brutal and wasteful.
Cock fighting should be banned. It wastes the creature’s life (please, put aside the argument of “It was bred, born, and raised for this purpose” because that is the very sort of self-absolving comment one makes when good-taste and sensibility are NOT on one’s side). It wastes the money and time of the participants - money that undoubtedly could be used for their environmental, educational and/or social betterment. It wastes the taxpayer’s (as in me) money since we pay for the cops and animal workers who have to deal with the during or after effects. It further wastes taxpayer money by paying the stupid state legislature to discuss whether or not to ban it. Just ban it. This so-called tradition that a few beer-drinking animal-abusing gambling addicts wish to keep alive could prevent the rest of the culture they are attempting to preserve locked in a time capsule where growth, advancement, and future are unconsidered. The culture in question has so many admirable qualities that this argument to maintain cock-fighting as a legal activity seems almost counter productive to the whole culture’s reputation. By way of extreme comparison, that’s almost like saying “Let’s keep slavery legal. Sure it’s ugly, wasteful, and degrading to another human being, but it’s part of our culture, man!” and the government saying “Well…we don’t want to impinge on anyone’s culture…so we’ll keep it legal.” This is a sort of majoring on minors that keeps us as a state distracted from bigger issues like water management or appointing/electing judges that don’t drink and drive.
Why is there this compellation to see for yourself? If you want to see a celebrity rooster, check here or here.
March 4th, 02005 at 3:42 pm
I have yet to experience the New Mexican version, but the Mexican version of the same leaves me with two observations. 1) You would probably not “get” it and the atmosphere (and the palpable enthusiasm of the other attendees) can be a bit much. This is no arena sport - you have to run elbows with the other enthusiasts. 2) if you are not part of it, the seeming maltreatment (maybe they have a great life from their point of view?) of the animals in their use in the arena is pretty unsettling.
Personally, I don’t support the activity, but I am loathe to ask the state to protect me from it. I think it is cruel to the roosters, but Chickens are food. So they fight some, so what? I say leave cockfighting alone and worry about more pressing issues.