Cock fighting sabong

Iloilo persons nabbed for cockfighting detained outside police station. A family member shows the receipt of P15, for a surety bond to bail her husband from the case of illegal gambling. Photo by Leo Solinap. More than suspects from illegal gambling stay in the compound of the Dumangas Municipal Police Station as they wait for their families to bail them out. Leo Solinap.

Cockfighting is an age-old practice in which two or more specially bred birds , known as gamecocks, are placed in an enclosed pit to fight for the primary purposes of gambling and entertainment. A typical cockfight can last anywhere from several minutes to more than half an hour and usually results in the death of one or both birds. Even birds who aren't killed during cockfights suffer terribly. Most roosters on a gamefowl farm live tied to a stake, barrel or small wooden hut. They are often injected with steroids and adrenaline boosting drugs and, for two to three weeks prior to a fight, are kept in a small dark box to isolate them from other animals and deprive them of stimuli and natural behavior. Regardless of how exhausted or injured they become during a fight, the birds cannot escape from the fighting pit. Common injuries include punctured lungs, broken bones and pierced eyes, yet they are forced to continue to fight.

Related to cockfighting: bullfighting , Dog fighting. An illegal, organized fight between gamecocks, often fitted with metal gaffs, that is arranged as a spectacle. All rights reserved. Switch to new thesaurus.

A cockfight is a blood sport , held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6, years. But it was during Magellan 's voyage of discovery of the Philippines in when modern cockfighting was first witnessed and documented for Westerners by the Italian Antonio Pigafetta , Magellan's chronicler, in the Kingdom of Taytay. The combatants, referred to as gamecocks not to be confused with game birds , are specially bred and conditioned for increased stamina and strength.