After several states in Mexico have banned cockfights, the enterprise is still legal in Jalisco.
The bans offered many benefits to the animals’ well-being, protecting them from physical injury and even death. And I’d add early-onset dementia.
But cockfight legality is based on the premise cockfighting is a “social activity that provides a sense of identity and continuity to the Mexican population, thus contributing to promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity.” Worded in such a way, this sounds like a cake-baking competition. Nonetheless, it remains controversial and on a legal edge. (Cockadoodle-do vs. The State of Jalisco.)
A cockfight is a blood sport between two cocks (called Gamecocks or Combat Birds). The fight is held in a Palenque, or cockfighting ring. It’s generally fought to the death. The history of feathered gladiators goes back 6,000 years. It was practiced by the Greeks before battle to stimulate warriors to greater frenzy and belligerence with cockfight losers winding up in a chicken souvlaki.
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