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DC Debate: Is the court order banning cockfights justified?

Cockfighting often goes hand- in- hand with gambling

Hyderabad:

Cruelty for sake of entertainment:

In a cockfight, two roosters fight each other to the death while people place bets.

Cockfighters often let the birds suffer due to untreated injuries or throw the birds away like trash after a fight. Besides being cruel, cockfighting often goes hand- in- hand with gambling.

Left to themselves, roosters rarely hurt each other badly. In cockfights, on the other hand, the birds often wear razor-sharp blades on their legs and incur injuries like punctured lungs, broken bones and pierced eyes, if they even survive.

The suffering is enormous. Even birds that are not killed during cockfights endure needless pain. Regardless of how exhausted or injured they become, the birds cannot escape from the fighting pit during a fight.

The steel blades, which resemble 3-inch curved ice picks, tied to the birds’ legs are so sharp and dangerous that cockfighters themselves have been killed when they have been accidentally slashed by their own birds.

While it is true that birds will fight over food, territory, or mates, such fights are generally only to establish dominance within a group (the pecking order) and seldom result in serious injuries.

This natural behaviour is quite different from what happens in staged cockfights, where pairs of birds, bred for maximum aggression (and sometimes given steroids or other drugs to make them more successful fighters), are forced to fight until a winner is declared.

Sadly, some people bring children to cockfights, which can teach kids to enjoy violence and think that animal suffering is okay.

While it is true that cockfighting has been practised for centuries in various countries, including India, it does not necessarily mean it is right or even acceptable.

In India, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960, is in place to promote animal welfare. By doing so, it has made certain types of cruelty to animals, offences, including inciting animals to fight for the purposes of entertainment. Clearly, cockfighting is illegal.

In light of the inherent cruelty in animal fights, including cockfights, the Act, through Sections 11(1)(m) and (n), specifically prohibits both the incitement of animals to fight for the purposes of entertainment as well as the organisation of, and using of a place for, such fights. Thus, the Act considers cockfights to be acts of cruelty and prohibits them per se.

Under Section 3 of the Act, it is the duty of every person in charge of any animal to take all reasonable measures to ensure the wellbeing of the animal and prevent the infliction of unnecessary pain. But by subjecting the birds to cockfights, the persons having the charge of the roosters fail entirely to do so.

The High Court of Bombay prohibited animal fighting in 1996 in its decision to the People for Animals vs State of Goa case. On May 7, 2014, the Supreme Court passed an order prohibiting all animal races and fights. That same month, the High Court of Madras in the S. Kannan vs Commissioner of Police case declined permission for a cockfighting event in a temple festival and suggested the prohibition of cockfights in the state of Tamil Nadu. Last week the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Court and the Bombay High Court have stayed cockfights. I hope the government machinery will honour the court verdict. Nuggehalli Jayasimha, MD, Humane Society International, Hyderabad

Cockfighting is our tradition:

Sankranti is a major Hindu festival in India, especially in Andhra Pradesh. Most people take part in the festivities for four days Bhogi, Sankranti, Kanuma and Mukkanuma. People who have settled abroad, students pursuing higher studies and working professionals usually return to their respective villages or towns to celebrate the festival with their families. The air of festivity is all around and sounds of togetherness and the laughter of children emanate from every home.

Women are often busy drawing colourful rangoli patterns in front of the house and backyards, while men take decorated bulls to visit the houses seeking alms during Sankranti.

The men usually are busy organising or enjoying cockfights, ram fights and bull races. These are traditional games which have been in practise since the time when there were no other means of entertainment, like TV and computer games.

It is of key importance that we promote these traditional games and revive our past tradition and culture at a time when the younger generation seems to be getting carried away by Western culture and are blinding aping the West.

Cockfights are organised as a part of the festivities.

In cockfighting, if the cocks do not have knives tied to their legs during a fight, the game is likely to go on for hours and there is no clear winner or loser, In the end, it leaves the audience with sights of severely wounded birds.

The knives tied to the birds legs make all the difference as the game is complete in just a few minutes. Such a move cannot be considered as cruelty to the birds.

During festive seasons, lakhs of animals like chicken, goats and even other large animals are slaughtered for meat. If this sport is considered as cruelty, then nobody should be allowed to consume meat.

It is the natural order of things that one animal kills another for its survival and this is the way that nature has been created by God.

Even today, the Indian economy continues to be agrarian. Farmers, after harvesting their crop, feel like sharing their joy with their family and friends during Sankranti.

In our state, the farmers set aside some amount of money to participate in cockfights keeping in mind their financial status. Whether they win or lose the cockfight, it does not matter. What these farmers really care about is whether they have been able to enjoy themselves.

Cockfights are orgainsed by a few members of the society, while the majority are only an audience to the sport.

We encourage only traditional games and there have been no major instances where people have lost huge sums of money after gambling on the cockfights. Unlike other games like, cricket where betting is so organised that often there are reports of families being ruined through the gambling and careers of several top players end abruptly due to their involvement in this illegal gambling.

I have already made an appeal to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to declare Sankranti as a state festival and allow the cockfights during the four days of the Sankranti festivities by giving exemption.

I hope that the Chief Minister will agree to do so and that the festivities and spirit of Sankranti will continue as always. Maganti Murali Mohan, Actor and MP from Rajahmundry

( Source : dc )
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