Gamecocks are born to fight and kill

I would like to point out some factual errors and a violation of journalistic ethics in Neal Cruz’s June 17 column titled “Cockfighting is cruelty to animals”:

Cruz states: “Yet the cocks have no animosity against each other except that humans make them fight to satisfy their bloodlust.”

This is false information and clearly not based on research. You can check: have two roosters untied and see for yourself what happens. You can place them 100 meters apart, and if not restrained by leashes and can see and hear each other, they will find a way to come face to face and try to kill each other. They will not stop until one or both of them is/are dead, whether or not they are outfitted with artificial spurs. Even with just their natural spurs, they also use these for killing.

This is fact. If they did not naturally behave like that, then the sport of cockfighting would not exist. We don’t force these birds to fight. It is their natural instinct to fight to the death.

Cruz states: “Cockfighting has been outlawed in most of the United States. Only the hillbilly counties still have them, but I am sure they would be outlawed there, too, in due time.”

False again. All 50 states have already outlawed it, with the state of Louisiana being the last state to prohibit it in 2008. So there is no cockfighting in the whole United States.

As to journalistic ethics, Cruz uses “hillbilly,” a racist and derogatory word. Who in his right mind, much less, a reporter, would use that word in a national newspaper? That violates common decency.

So, I hope this letter can clear the name of 9,000,000 Filipino sabungeros (according to the PCIJ 10 percent of the population are cockfighting aficionados) from the slander Cruz has cast on me and my fellow brothers in this sport. Publishing a false, unresearched article, tainted with hate and racist comments, certainly violates journalistic standards.
—JC BERNARDO,
president,
Sabong.net.ph