Psst: Wanna see some rooster porn?

Police and the SPCA just busted a cockfighting ring in Surrey (a suburb of Vancouver), killed 1270 gamecocks and are contemplating charges against 38 people; the SPCA and all their self-righteous fellow travelers are strutting about with an aggressive arrogance normally displayed only by the birds they have so mercifully euthanized.

Cockfighting is an important part of the culture in many parts of the world and, when you think about it, not a bit more cruel than hunting and fishing. Canada is full of hypocritical people who eat Chicken McNuggets and eggs produced by battery hens, but have never had the moral courage to chop the head off a rooster. These phonies are imposing criminal sanctions on immigrants who are more closely in touch with the earth, and that is wrong.

Was it the moral thing to do, killing 1270 roosters? Did anyone ask the birds if they wanted to die? Were they evil? Couldn't someone adopt them? The RCMP and SPCA should concentrate on real crime and nuisance animals. I have found both agencies useless when dealing with barking and biting dogs, especially cases where owners allow their canines to run loose or bark all night.

These roosters spar while wearing leather balls on their legs to get used to the weight and feel of spurs. They are getting exercise and fight training much the same as boxers do. In the cockpit, they will wear razor sharp steel spurs and only one bird will survive. I know a man whose bird won 16 fights (obviously, no losses) , making him moderately wealthy and well respected in certain circles.

To guard against a handler putting poison on the spurs, each handler is often required to lick the spurs of his own bird before the fight. Sometimes the spurs are stuck into a lime for the same reason.