One of the largest operations in the country or so they say. 150-seat fighting pits.
Makes ya wonder how they got away with it for so long.
I never understood the appeal myself.
https://news4sanantonio.com/news/of...easterling-family-department-of-justice#
They can't get fentanyl off the street but are hell on illegal cockfighting, go figure!
Years ago there was some large sums of money that changed hands at the cock fights. I heard of guys losing their trucks in some of the wagers too. A lot of crazy stuff went on at those events.
I tried it for a while, but I bruised too easy.
Years ago there was some large sums of money that changed hands at the cock fights. I heard of guys losing their trucks in some of the wagers too. A lot of crazy stuff went on at those events.
Gotta be the gambling that’s the appeal more than the fights. I knew about the $500+ roosters, a friend once drove $30,000 worth of pullets from here to El Paso.
The article mentions a $1,500 entry fee to put seven roosters into the ring.
Never had any interest in it. But when I lived and worked in Houston in the early 70s, some of the guys I worked with had fighting roosters and the knives they attached to their legs when fighting.
That reminds of this story. What an unlucky 1 in a 100 million way to go out.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/polic...ng-roosters-blade-while-breaking-up-game
I tried it for a while, but I bruised too easy.
They got pills for that!
Use to go to Derby's when I was young.
Used to be yards full of fighting cocks around here..
One place 20-30 miles from me got busted a few years back. It had 2 levels of seating, and a bar & grill.
But how do they keep from getting busted???????? Sheesh... payola to the right people. Same way with a county staying dry. Enough moonshiners paying enough politicians to keep it that way.
Not the first time it's happened in the Philippines. In the Philippines and a lot of countries with a Spanish cultural background, they fight slashers. They only heel one leg on the cock with a gaff that has an upswept curved blade that's sharpened on the inside of the curve. When I was over there, I used to go to cockfights pretty regularly. Anyway, I can remember at least twice reading in the paper about people in the cockpit getting nailed by a heeled rooster and bleeding to death.
There was a cockfight busted near hear a while back, I think in the last year or so.
Compare the life of a gamecock to the life of a meat chicken or egg layer and tell me again what animal cruelty is....as a nation, we have lost our collective mind.
The only reason the gov't pursues busting cockfights is because they don"t get a cut...mb
All the fuqked up things going on in our state and cockfighting is a high priority, been all over the news here today.
A couple of my workers raise and fight the birds. I don't get it, but it's not my culture.
There was a place called the chicken pit here in Pike county for years. I never went but heard that thousands of dollars were bet each weekend there. Rumor was that the sheriff at the time had interest in it. That was never confirmed though.
How do you recognize the Polack at the chicken fight?- - - - - - -He's the one with the duck.
How do you recognize the Mexican at the chicken fight?- - - - - - -He's betting on the duck!
How do you know the mob is running the chicken fight?- - - - - - -The duck wins!
Remember my dad talking about going to watch cockfights as a young man.
Back in the early '70s I had a route job that took me into a semi-rural neighborhood at edge of town. Last house on dead-end gravel lane had probably 25 - 30 or so fighting roosters on the back side of the lot. Each had it's own little 'TP' style hut with food and water and each rooster was tethered by a short leg-hold leash. Never saw any hens there at all.
Remember my dad talking about going to watch cockfights as a young man.
Back in the early '70s I had a route job that took me into a semi-rural neighborhood at edge of town. Last house on dead-end gravel lane had probably 25 - 30 or so fighting roosters on the back side of the lot. Each had it's own little 'TP' style hut with food and water and each rooster was tethered by a short leg-hold leash. Never saw any hens there at all.
That's the only way to raise fighting roosters. If one happens to get loose it will methodically kill all the tethered ones. That behavior is instinctive. People get paid very well to raise fighters- - - -which, BTW, is not illegal. Until one is actually participating in the fights, it's just another livestock animal.
I used to love going to the big pits when I was younger. I never saw any fist fights or arguments at least not at the events. There was no guns, alcohol or drugs allowed and the guys running the place would send you packing if they seen you with anything. It was a family friendly place with concessions and all kinds of gamecock merchandise, chickens and occasionally livestock guardian puppies. Kids run around outside playing games, women set in big groups chatting and the men mostly set around the pits BS'ing and betting a few bucks between themselves on the fights. If you pulled up and didn't know better you would think it was a big community get together.
I tried it for a while, but I bruised too easy.
"They call me 'Helicoptor'".
We had some guys attempt to rob a big ring here in TN several years back. It didn’t work out to well. It seems off duty deputies liked to partake in the cock fights on their days off!
I really dont like the knives or gaffs, But like watching them fight barefoot,conditioned stags and roosters are warriors,,,Friend of mine used to keep 4-5 stags or roosters and bunch of select hens at my farm to free range on horse apples and cowpies, kept the yard tick free,and no worries about caterpillers and such getting close to the garden,, was hell on baby snakes too, Girlfriend pulled up one time and let her little mix breed dog out and it went after some 2-3 week old chicks, and that hen rode that dog like a cowboy back to the house flappin and aflogging,, sumbitch was as screamin like it was stabbed with a knife
[quote=gunzo]One place 20-30 miles from me got busted a few years back. It had 2 levels of seating, and a bar & grill.
Edmonson county?
[quote=gunzo]One place 20-30 miles from me got busted a few years back. It had 2 levels of seating, and a bar & grill.
Edmonson county?
I bet they had the freshest chicken sandwiches in the entire county
my high school math teacher got busted for cock fighting. They came into school and walked him out in cuffs. Never saw him again. Don't know if he went to jail or they fired him or?
Used to be ratty trailer over in Claw Hammer, raised game cocks. Bout a hundred blue barrels out back.
Had a set of truck balls hangin off the mailbox
I got one for $25 and turned it loose on some ornery leghorn I had that was chasin the kids. LOL
[quote=gunzo]One place 20-30 miles from me got busted a few years back. It had 2 levels of seating, and a bar & grill.
Edmonson county?
No, quite a bit further east. But they're all over.
Blue plastic barrels cut in half with a cut out for a door seem to be the preferred Cock house. Can see 20-40 of them on a hillside during a country drive here.
Mississippi in the 80s. Went to a fight. In a National forest was a permanent fighting arena with bleacher and the works. I could hardly believe it since I was from up north. Edk
Never saw a cock fight, but it is fun to watch two standard farm roosters go at it.
Never saw a cock fight, but it is fun to watch two standard farm roosters go at it.
Growing up, my old Dominicker, Jake, was the baddest dude around. He kept good order in the barn yard.
IIRC, many years ago there was an article in the Wall Street Journal about life in WV coal country. Part of the article mentioned that a local sheriff turned a blind eye to cock fighting. Some city folks got wind of it and was giving the sheriff grief about not shutting it down. The sheriff's reasoning was that he would rather the roosters kill each other than the miners kill each other.
A cousin’s brother in law up in Vermont gave us a rooster and some hens to my family up in NY State. The rooster was a handsome bird, with comb and wattles and spurs trimmed off for the pit. The Spurs grew back of course.
That rooster watched over his small harem of barred rocks, Rhode Island reds and game hens. If you stuck a hand in his face like another rooster he would crouch and spread his ruff and jump at you, never aggressive to humans otherwise. They were all free range, at feeding time those game hens would fly in flapping and gliding from 100 yards out three feet off the ground.
A few years back here in Texas I had a student whose family bred them, the roosters out back tethered individually to their little A frame huts. Consequently they shot a bunch of raptors each year, every one that was drawn in by all that prey. One time he showed me a photo on his phone of him and his brothers holding up a dead bald eagle by its outstretched wings.
They used to fight chickens in Oklahoma big time when I was growing up there as a kid. I think a lot of it’s been shut down.