ABSTRACT
The cockfight is one of the oldest, most documented, and most widely distributed traditional sports known to man. The most common form of cockfight involves a one–on–one confrontation between two equally matched cocks, a battle that may be interspersed with standard periods of respite. The unmistakable tone of the preceding passage reminds us, a large part of the mass of writings devoted to the cockfight concerns the question of whether the sport should be banned on the grounds of excessive cruelty to animals. In England, cockfighting, which is illegal, is compared to foxhunting, which is legal, by one cocker as follows: “Cockfighting isn’t as unfair as foxhunting. The many essays and monographs devoted to cockfighting, only a few actually comment on the phallic nature of the cocks. The gallus is a phallus and if there is a sexual component to the cockfight, it is a matter played out between two sets of males: roosters and men.
