Michael Vick's New Sport

[BDS]

I came across a slide show about cock fighting in Puerto Rico today. It's pretty brutal, but the narrator seems so calm and cool about the whole thing, and the slides of the fighting cocks are strangely beautiful. Maybe Michael Vick should look into this.

Cockfighting in Puerto Rico (http://www.albello.com/Cockfighting/)

[ITSOZAZ]

interesting...and beautiful (even if disturbing).

[Ohm]

What can I say "Humans".
I come from dominican decent, and yes this is brutal,but my relatives don't think so.

[livius drusus]

Game cocks are noble and beautiful birds. May they take down their handlers with them. (Sorry, Ohm.)

[Ohm]

Game cocks are noble and beautiful birds. May they take down their handlers with them. (Sorry, Ohm.)

I was born and raised here in the USA. I don't share the same view, No need for apology Drusus. :wink: . Further my misanthropic attitude out weights my sympathy for the owners, who participate in the senseless activity for entertainment.

[The Lone Ranger]

You can clearly see the artificial spurs they attach to the cocks' legs, to help them more efficiently maim and kill each other. Some cock fighters use razor blades instead.

[Cliche Guevara]

The photography - from what I saw - is gorgeous. But I couldn't watch much of the slideshow. As soon as the fighting started I was out of there. I just can't handle that kind of thing.

[Ernie Lundquist]

New Mexico and Louisiana only got around to outlawing cockfighting last year.

But my real reason for mentioning this is that when I Googled to verify that the laws had passed, I learned that Wilford Brimley is an outspoken advocate for cockfighting, and I thought you all should know that.

Get your diabeetus supplies elsewhere!

[BDS]

You can clearly see the artificial spurs they attach to the cocks' legs, to help them more efficiently maim and kill each other. Some cock fighters use razor blades instead.

If you noticed, they also attach little boxing gloves for the "sparring sessions". I think it's reasonable to object to blood sports without contemning the (human) participants, for whom it is a cultural heritage. It would (for example) be a bit silly to despise an ancient Roman because he owned slaves, although it's normal to depise slavery.

Also, violence can be beautiful and moving (as film directors everywhere have discovered). Life and death struggles are certainly dramatic.

[The Lone Ranger]

You don't want your rooster to get maimed or killed before the main event, so the spurs/razor blades are only strapped on for the money fights.

And I condemned the human participants where, exactly?

[BDS]

You don't want your rooster to get maimed or killed before the main event, so the spurs/razor blades are only strapped on for the money fights.

And I condemned the human participants where, exactly?

Of course (as far as the boxing gloves).

And I wasn't accusing anyone in particular of contemning (yes, it's a word, meaning "holding in contempt, scorning") the human participants, although livius did write, "May they take down their handlers with them."

[livius drusus]

Oh, I definitely condemn them. I contemn them too. I have no problem cond/temning historical slave owners either, how about that.

[BDS]

You can contemn anyone you want, livius (although you haven't the power to condemn him). I can think your contempt misplaced and culturally biased. Doubtless we are all guilty of behaviors that will be thought contemptable in the future (but with which we see nothing wrong ). The best any of us can do is muddle by with the moral codes, knowledge, and cultural biases that we have inherited. To disaprove of the behaviors of those who have not inherited similar codes is reasonable -- to hold such people in contempt is prejudiced -- even conceited.

[livius drusus]

Uh huh. And yet, somehow, there are plenty of contemporaries and cultural siblings who condtemn this kind of behavior. There were Romans opposed to slavery and there are Puerto Ricans opposed to cock fighting. The "oh things were different there/then" rationalization is just that.

[BDS]

Uh huh. And yet, somehow, there are plenty of contemporaries and cultural siblings who condtemn this kind of behavior. There were Romans opposed to slavery and there are Puerto Ricans opposed to cock fighting. The "oh things were different there/then" rationalization is just that.

“Rationalizations” and “reasons” are not so very different. To the Communist, Capitalists are equivalent to slave owners, and worthy of contempt. However, holding the owner of a hotdog stand in contempt for his Capitalist ways seems ridiculous (to me). He’s just trying to get by, and accepting the economic and moral systems of his time. All men may be philosophers – but most of them accept the world as it is presented to them, rather than questioning it.

Some vegetarians contemn all those who eat animals, just as you contemn cockfighters. However, when someone holds in contempt the majority of his neighbors, he lacks charity, and risks self-righteousness.

The vegetarians who contemn meat-eaters and the animal-lovers who contemn cockfighting may very well win the battle for hearts and minds. They may eventually persuade us all. Nonetheless, their contempt is not morally correct. For there is none righteous, no, not one.

[livius drusus]

I don't truck with that moral correctness. It lacks charity and risks self-righteousness.

[BDS]

Since you don't "truck with" moral correctness, you should, perhaps, be less eager to hold those you find morally incorrect in contempt.

[BDS]

Here's a New Yorker article comparing football and dogfighting:

Football, dogfighting, and brain damage : The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/10/19/091019fa_fact_gladwell/)

It's no surprise (to me) that football players would be attracted to dogfighting -- they admire their own gladiatorial temperment, and probably admire that of game dogs (or cocks) as well.