It goes without saying that chickens are credibly the most exploited bird on earth. They are exploited for their eggs on a huge scale as long as they lay eggs. Thereafter, they are butchered for their meat. The term ‘chicken’ which is the name of a particular bird has been immorally branded as a ‘snack’ or ‘food’. Roosters are considered unworthy as they don’t lay eggs, and are therefore either killed or gambled in cockfighting. Almost in all factory farms, roosters are killed within days of their birth, while at some slaughter houses they are chopped alive in bulk in grinding machines while they are fully conscious. Thus, chickens, hens and roosters have been sadistically destined to be killed by the humans. The butchers deal not in the professed food but in pain, murders and diseases.
In the last week of December 2016, the common High Court for the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at Hyderabad had upheld the prior ban that adjudicated that the roosters can’t be waged into cockfights, even on the occasion of Sankranti festival.
By nature, roosters are non-violent birds and rarely hurt each other. For cockfights, roosters are deliberately trained to fight and are routinely doped to make them direly fierce. To make the game more competitive, the weak and unwilling roosters are killed and thrown away as trash. Sharp metal blades are often tied to their legs that cause them to mutilate each other with blood oozing out from their bodies. Their knives tore them both and go deep into the competing rooster’s flesh. When a cockfight is organised in a town or village, despite the fact that the gamblers are usually adult, the children are especially enthralled by this violent game and they assemble in groups to witness the fight. This makes them believe that it is absolutely fine to exploit chickens and that their lives cost nothing before the humans’. Paul Farmer has rightly said that “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” How can the children learn about the Animal Protection Laws and ‘Animal Ethics’ from their elders, when the latter are themselves culpable for organising such destructive sports? When a rooster dies resultantly, then instead of feeling sorrow, the spectators cheer over the purposed death. These games are a stain in any civilised society.
Just like an actor’s name sinks into oblivion when people stop watching his films, if we refuse to watch these blood sports or engage in any form of animal cruelty then these inhumane things can’t survive long.
This is a welcome step towards reducing chicken cruelty.
