What's Going on in the 209: Local Cockfighting Ring Busted

https://fox40.com/news/local-news/san-joaquin-county/cockfight-orchard-san-joaquin-county

“Deputies who responded to a call of people trespassing discovered an organized cockfight, which led to the arrest of several people and the confiscation of several roosters and other items, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office.” 

Now this is definitely some Central Valley shit right here. There’s nothing that brings Filipinos and Hispanics together, more than cockfighting culture. And as you know, the 209 is filled with both ethnicities. A good handful of my relatives out here, have at least one rooster and several chickens on their property. Anyway, I thought this was a funny story to editorialize on because I hardly hear of underground fight rings, let alone the animal variety, getting busted. 

So for those who have never heard of cockfighting (get your mind out of the gutter), it’s basically where two or more roosters are thrown into a ring to scrap with each other. Usually, there are blades that are attached to the roosters’ legs and the fight will continue until one rooster is cut and killed. And yes, there is usually betting involved amongst the human spectators. No, I have never personally spectated a cockfight, but as I mentioned earlier, it is very popular among my people. 

According to the story above, several arrests were made last Sunday in the town of Linden (about 10 miles east or so of Stockton) after deputies were called in response to people trespassing private property. When law enforcement arrived, several vehicles and people fled the scene. After searching the area, deputies found evidence of a cockfighting ring which included: several roosters, a plywood ring designated for the fighting, and sets of gaffs (the blades that are fastened to the roosters’ legs). Charges towards the individuals caught included: animal abuse, trespassing, conspiracy to commit a crime, possession of a game cock for fighting, and possession of implements for fighting birds. 

Now this story was also posted on the 209 Times’ social media accounts (the people of Stockton’s main source of news), and what interested me more than the story itself, was what other locals had to say about it. One commenter argued that animals naturally want to fight each other and that cockfighting is actually more humane than what large corporations will do to roosters (slaughter them anyway), because they are less valuable than chickens. I don’t necessarily disagree with this opinion. It makes me wonder how much of a difference there actually is between betting on two men to fight each other professionally, and betting on wild animals to fight (if in fact, animals like roosters already have a natural inclination to scrap with each other). 

Reading this story has only made me more curious about the world of cockfighting? It makes me question the size of this culture within the Central Valley even more? Where do you find these rings? How many more of them are there? If there was significantly more money at stake, could this become a mainstream form of entertainment for Americans (it’s not like this wouldn’t be the first form of using animals for sports entertainment).

God Bless the Central Valley,

Producer Reese