By Najiah
Created Tuesday, July 27th
Blood sport popular among Indonesians
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 12:40:00
PETALING JAYA: The heinous blood sport of cockfighting, where two roosters fight each other to death, is believed to be increasing in popularity in Indonesian settlements in the Klang Valley.
It was learnt that on weekends, cockpits or battle rings in these settlements or kongsi at certain construction sites become the centre for a cruel form of betting involving thousands of ringgit.
The punters also include locals and individual bets are said to run into thousands, indicating the hand of organised betting syndicates.
The matter came to light after police broke up a cockfight organised by some Indonesians at an undergrowth in Bandar Puteri Puchong on Sunday.
During the raid, 16 Indonesian and seven locals were arrested. In the raid too, about 21 fighting roosters were rescued and RM15,571, believed to be betting money, was seized.
Bukit Aman Anti-Vice, Gambling and Secret Societies operations chief Supt Maszely Minhad said cockfighting in the area was believed have been active the past three months. He said police were monitoring other construction sites to ascertain if similar activities were being conducted.
Maszely said cockfighting here was popular among Indonesians but did not discount its popularity among other foreign nationals.
Police warned while cockfighting was illegal, it was also illegal to possess any fighting equipment designed for the blood sport.
Animal welfare and animal rights activists, in response to the latest case, said seeing adults relish such brutality can teach kids to enjoy violence and think animal suffering is okay. They urged toughening up of laws to check animal abuse and prevent cockfighting from becoming a major gambling activity.
Bloody fight to the finish
LEFT to themselves, roosters almost never hurt each other.
In cockfights, on the other hand, the birds often wear razor-sharp blades on their legs and get injuries like punctured lungs, broken bones and pierced eyes — when they even survive.
In a cockfight, two roosters fight each other to the death while people place bets.
Their owners let the birds suffer untreated injuries or throw the birds away like trash afterwards.
The combatants, aptly referred to as gamecocks, are specially bred birds, conditioned for increased stamina and strength.
They are trained to be extremely aggressive towards other cocks and are equipped with either metal spikes called gaffs or knives, tied to the leg so as to inflict wounds on the opponent during the fight.
The spikes range in length from just over an inch to almost two and a half inches.
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