METAL SPURS USED IN COCK-FIGHTING. 



353 



thought the most deadly curves, and to the spur 

 being able not only to penetrate, but to cut its 

 way out again. Of the steel spurs shown in 

 Fig. 1 14, D is by Watling of Exeter ; E by 



Fig. 113. — Silver Spurs. 



while many have pointed to " Nature's laws" as 

 ordaining fatal combats of the same kind. This 

 last argument is not sound, since it omits to 

 consider that in the case before us the fighting in- 

 stinct has been developed by the selection of man 

 until it has attained an intensity that does not 

 exist in Nature left to herself. Nature's com- 

 batants do not as a rule fight to the death, but 

 when one is thoroughly whipped, it gives in or 

 runs away ; in the Game fowl courage and spirit 

 have been developed artificially, until a bird has 

 been produced that caimot yield till death, or if he 

 does, is at once ignominiously consigned by his 

 master to the pot, a vengeance Nature does not 

 inflict. That is to be remembered ; but there can 

 be little doubt that if a Game cock had the 

 choice offered him of having his neck wrung 

 or meeting an antagonist, he would unhesitat- 

 ingly prefer the latter, and is conscious of little 

 beyond the fierce joy of the combat, during 

 all that befals him. In mere suffering of 

 the victim, the old apologists were probably 

 right in placing their favourite sport below 

 shooting and some other " sports " which 

 still hold their ground. 



Neither, as many suppose, can the use of 

 metal spurs be deemed additional cruelty. As 



Singleton of Dublin ; F by Ross of Bloxwich ; 

 and of the different forms which will be noticed, 

 each was thought much of by its admirers of a 

 bygone day. Steel spurs were also plated with 

 silver, and as the plating of those days was 

 mechanical, not electro, these could scarcely be 

 distinguished from silver spurs of similar shape. 



Such then was cock-fighting ; such were its 

 methods, its votaries, and the scale upon which 

 it was carried on in the days of our grandfathers, 

 or perhaps some of our fathers. It is not so 

 necessary now as it was even 

 Barbarity y^ j8;2, to declaim against the 

 Cock-fighting, cruelty of it, since its total sup- 

 pression is only a question of time ; 

 but it still seems necessary to point out clearly 

 wherein the " brutality," which we must still 

 ascribe to it, really consists. That does not lie so 

 much as supposed, in the actual suffering of the 

 birds themselves. It is curious that some of the 

 original promoters of the Society for the Preven- 

 tion of Cruelty to Animals expressly exempted 

 cock-fighting from their strictures. One of them 

 — and not himself addicted to it — points out how 

 the Game cock is kept in comfort till the day of 

 battle, and then cannot be forced, but is actuated 

 by his natural instinct, "and in fact gratified." 

 Another remarks very much to the same effect ; 



Fig. 114. — Steel Spurs. 



the contributor already quoted remarks, " If two 

 cocks are left together in a state of Nature, deatli 

 to one or both is a natural result, but it is likely 

 to be the work of hours ; whereas a battle with 

 two heeled cocks in good condition rarely lasts 



