CoCK-FrCHTIXG. 3^^ 



" Cocks figlit \\ illingly ; the hunted hare, the fox, the deer, the sahnon strugghng for hours on 

 tlie hook, the vermin pining for days in a steel trap in order tliat the animals he naturally preys 

 upon may be reared for sport, are all the unwilling victims of the superior force or intellect of man. 

 Doubtless, however, such views as we have expressed will be, with many persons, unpopular at the 

 present day — each Individual, as Butler writes, compounds for cruelties 



" ' He is inclined to, 

 By damning those he has no mind to.' 



Reminding one of the lines of Somerv-ille, the author of the poem of " The Chase," who, being an 

 advocate for hunting hares with harriers, writes : — • 



" ' Nor the timorous hare 

 O'ermatch'd destroy, but leave that vile offence 

 To the mean, murd'rous, cmirsiitg crew, intent 

 On blood and spoil. Oh, blast their hopes, just Heaven I 

 And all their painful drudgeries repay 

 With disappointment and severe remorse. ' 



" ' T/if Chase,' Book T. 



" Let us not be misunderstood, we are not advocating the practice of cock-fighting, but merely 

 denouncing the inconsistency of those who indulge in other sports attended with a far greater 

 amount of suffering, and who regard themselves as severely virtuous because they denounce this 

 one. We never fought a cock, or bred one for fighting ; that we have witnessed cock-fights we do 

 not den)', and as our readers may like to read a description of a combat, we reproduce the following 

 account of one witnessed by ourselves some few years since." [Here follows a long description.] 



" I dare say you will tell me that I ought to be ashamed of myself for going to such a demora- 

 lising and brutalising spectacle ; but I think that there is something to be said for everything in 

 this world, even for cock-fighting. 



" On the general principle of common sense, let me ask you, who are in the habit of eating veal 

 that is half an hour in the process of slow killing, and of enjoying your hunted hare that has for 

 fifty minutes been in an agony of mortal fear, until at last, exhausted and shrieking, with every 

 fibre in its body quivering with intense excitement, and every air-cell in its lungs filled with blood 

 and lymph, it sinks and receives a death-bite from hounds more merciful than their masters — are you, 

 I ask, the man to rail against allowing two gallant and noble animals to follow an impulse that has 

 been implanted in them for a wise purpose, that you are too short-sighted or wilfully obtuse to see } 

 The natural instinct of gregarious animals is to fight, so that the stronger males should destroy the 

 weaker and perpetuate the noblest race ; all, consequently, are provided (by Nature — ay, there's the 

 rub) with lethal weapons for this purpose. 



" As I once heard asked, suppose you were to inquire of a Game cock, whether he would 

 rather have his cervical vertebrae dislocated by the hand of Betty the poultry-maid, or take his 

 chance of life in mortal combat with his galla.it antagonist in the next farm-yard, can you 

 doubt his answer ? ' 



We shall attempt to point out the real character and tendency of cock-fighting. We have 

 not echoed some of the charges that have been brought against it ; we have, in particular, admitted 

 that artificial weapons, so far from adding to the cruelty of it, really lessen the amount of suffering ; 

 but, on the other hand, the really zi'orst features of this " sport" we have never yet seen explained. 

 It may be urged, and truly so, that other sports are cruel ; and we have little respect for the 

 man who, after declaiming against cock-fighting, will go down to his "gun-club" to maim and 



