What we are doing is working and we just need to keep it spreading
further and continuously growing.
Today I spoke with a cocker in SE Oklahoma, he has gotten with the FFA
teacher and they are bringing gamefowl to the school to educate the
kids on the natural genetics traits of gamecocks and how the cockers
have built a commercial method of harvest around those natural genetic
traits.
Each of us should make this same effort on the local level to educate
the kids of the truthful message about the gamecock harvest industry
and the fact that our government has passed an "unconstitutional" law
depriving us of the right to own and possess our livestock for the
purpose and/or with the intent to harvest our livestock. Therefore
these "unconstitutional" laws are actually depriving cockers of our
ownership rights in violation of the 5th amendment just as passing a
law making it illegal to own and possess beef cattle for the purpose
and/or with the intent to slaughter would violate the constitutional
rights of the cattle ranchers.
Education and "in your face" truth is what wins this public fight
against the HSUS.
And I want to send a personal "thank you" to Roger and Robert for
taking the initiative, contacting the FFA teacher and stepping forward
with this effort. Each of us should be as game and resourceful as
these two guys they have reached out to create an opportunity to
promote the gamecock harvest industry and educate the kids and the
surrounding community to the truth of our industry and the
unconstitutional law that was passed against us and that absolutely
helps us.
Thank you, B.L.
Below is a suggested handout that you may want to give to the students:
The gamecock owner’s efforts are driven by our love of the game fowl species.
Historically, as with other animals, game fowl came from the wild. But
their unique qualities led to our commitment to maintain them
genetically as closely to their natural ancestors as possible and to
perpetuate them as the subject of honor and admiration.
In contrast, other species of animals were domesticated for purposes
of food or other functional duties to fit human needs, often
“genetically breeding them away from the natural genetic traits of the
species”.
Game fowl owners genetically breed, test and conduct a harvest of our
game fowl to perpetuate the natural genetic traits of athleticism and
gameness that God placed into the gamecock when he created this
courageous and beautiful bird. We have built a commercial method of
harvest based on these natural genetic traits.
It is our right under the first amendment to perpetuate, honor and
admire these traits of athleticism, beauty and steadfast courage that
God placed into this noble and beautiful creature when he created it.
Game fowl are domesticated for their protection and preservation as
the natural habitats are being diminished by urban development.
The future of these beautiful fowl lies in the hands of the game fowl
breeders, but we will the understanding from the general public as to
our legitimate constitutional rights to own, possess and harvest our
livestock in our animal agriculture industry! Or this species and the
genetic traits that make first made man look to the gamecock in
admiration will become extinct.
Once Popular and Socially Acceptable:
Cockfighting
In some Colonial American circles, people crowed about cockfighting.
Our founding fathers were men of great courage and thus they respected
courage and so to they admired and respected the courage of the
gamecock. Often they engaged in this sport and agriculture industry by
allowing two metal-spurred roosters to compete in these fights, not a
few of our ancestors enjoyed the preparations, the crowds of
onlookers, the spectacle of combat to the death, and the gambling.
“Cockfighting was the second most popular sport after horse racing.
Everyone went. People from every class owned gamecocks,” said Elaine
Shirley, manager of rare breeds for Colonial Williamsburg’s coach and
livestock department.
Because of cockfighting’s popularity in the second half of the
eighteenth century, Colonial Williamsburg keeps two of these combative
roosters—Hankie Dean and Lucifer—to show guests. The birds differ from
other fowl in the Historic Area in that they are big and strong and
have athletic builds. They also have been “dubbed,” a practice in
which a bird’s wattles and comb were removed so an opponent could not
latch onto them in a fight.
Needless to say, Colonial Williamsburg does not fight the birds. That
would be illegal at this time. Nevertheless, the gamecocks allow
interpreters to discuss a popular and socially acceptable pastime. In
Win or Lose: A Social History of Gambling in America, Stephen
Longstreet wrote:
The colonial people bet on wrestling matches, target shooting, and
cock fights. Cock fights were a common sport; gamecocks specially bred
to retain the natural instincts and traits of the wild jungle fowl
from which all chickens originated were shown in these competitions.
The betting was heavy on some champion cock.
Cockfighting is as old as the allure of sport itself. Roman art
portrays it—a Pompeian mosaic shows two roosters squaring off. The
status and prestige of cockfighting grew in England beginning in the
1500s thanks to royal patronage. Henry VIII was a “cocker.” So was
James I.
Cockfighting reached its zenith in British North America between 1750
and 1800. To a degree, its popularity reflected a desire by colonists
to ape the behavior of the English upper class. Most enthusiastic were
the Americans living from North Carolina to New York.
The men who raised and fought gamecocks bred the winners to produce
the best birds and determined fighters and this strain is still very
distinctive. “During the 1700s, fighting cocks came to look similar in
size and shape, although they had different colors,” Shirley said.
Owners fed their fighting roosters a special diet, kept them in
specific areas, and exercised them to prepare for matches. They
strapped finely honed spurs—small pointed blades, sometimes fashioned
from silver—to their gamecocks’ legs for weapons.
The combats often were formal affairs. A bout’s sponsor set a place, a
date, and a time, and announced the event in the newspaper. Word of
mouth also drew crowds, as the marquis de Chastellux noted in 1782
after watching a fight in Louisa County, Virginia:
When the principal promoters of this diversion propose to match their
champions, they take care to announce it to the public, and although
there are neither posts nor regular conveyances, this important news
spreads with such facility that planters come from 30 or 40 miles
around, some with cocks, but all with money for betting, which is
sometimes very considerable.
An observer of one contest said the cockfight crowd included “many
genteel people, conspicuously mingled with the lower classes of
farmers, hunters and ranchers.” Tavern yards often served as cockfight
sites because tavern keepers made money on fight fans for food and
drink, and accommodations.
In Europe well-built cockpits existed before the New World was
settled. Londoners could attend fights at such establishments as the
Royal Pit at Westminster. This brick and timber structure operated for
110 years and served as the scene for the William Hogarth engraving
Pit Ticket. Westminster fights led to the creation of the “Rules and
Order of Cocking.”
American fights typically required no fixed location. Combatants—there
are records of events in which fifty to sixty pairs of birds
fought—met in areas marked by a rope or in an open space between
buildings. If there were few permanent cockpits, Williamsburg
nevertheless may have had one. Archeological evidence suggests there
may have been one at Shields Tavern.
There were other sites. A Virginia Gazette of February 2, 1752
reports: “On Tuesday next will be fought, at the George and Dragon, in
Williamsburg, a Match of Cocks, for Ten Pistoles, the first Battle,
Five Pistoles the Second, and Two Pistoles and a Half the Third &c. As
likewise several other Matches.”
Another Williamsburg match took place in the spring of 1773, announced
in the advertisement below:
A notice in a subsequent issue says: “WILLIAMSBURG, MAY 27. On Tuesday
and Wednesday last the great COCK MATCH, between the upland and
lowland Gentlemen, was fought in this city, when it was determined, by
a majority of one battle, in favor of the former.”
Roosters competed with birds of similar weight, much as boxers and
wrestlers do today. Combat lasted until one gamecock killed the other,
one quit or neither could fight any longer. The finality of death
eliminated questions about the victor and the settling of bets.
At a cockfight people visited old friends and made new ones. Some
concluded business transactions. Others attended nearby dances after
the competition. During the bouts, spectators cheered, drank and ate.
The Fights repelled some colonists who found the sport disgusting
others disliked the wild atmosphere surrounding the competitions.
Eighteenth-century traveler Elkannah Watson said he was
...deeply astonished to find men of character and intelligence giving
their countenance to an amusement so frivolous and so scandalous, so
abhorrent to every feeling of humanity, and so injurious in its moral
influences.
Authorities occasionally tried to suppress cockfighting. In 1752, the
College of William and Mary directed its students to avoid them.
Georgia prohibited them in 1775. The Continental Congress and several
states passed legislation condemning the sport. After the
Revolutionary War, some citizens of the new United States looked upon
cockfighting as an unsavory vestige of English culture and advocated
its abandonment.
By about 1830, cockfighting generally was considered cruel and wrong.
Nevertheless, cockfighting still goes on in the throughout the United
States it is still a large industry active sport conducted in the
rural areas of every state and in the southern states in particular.
When Colonial Williamsburg interpreters display Hankie Dean and
Lucifer, and describe the colonialists’ love for cockfighting, to
guests, reactions reflect the viewpoints about the sport.
“People almost always react uniformly when we talk about cockfighting
in colonial America.” Shirley said. They are puzzled. They have
difficulty reconciling the contradiction between what they think of as
the eighteenth century’s refinement, decorum, and idealism, and its
attraction to spectator activities epitomized by death and wild
revelry. In truth we must understand that the culture of the time was
more tolerant of individual freedom and a wide range of individual
pursuits: “A general surface of satin laces, polite bows, and high
rhetoric that was equally acceptable of a noble sport that admires
courage and honor yet is frowned upon and criminalized today."
Today across America Law Enforcement Officers are sent out to make
raids, point guns at, and endanger the lives of Americans in an effort
to subjugate them and force them into compliance with another persons
opinion even if it means killing the gamecock owner that is simply
trying to earn a living and harvest their gamecocks in the same method
of harvest these fowl have been harvested in for more than 3,000
years.
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