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Feathers fly as Philippine cockfighting shakes off COVID-19 closures
Shut for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional cockfighting arenas are getting back to full capacity across the archipelago nation.
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In this photo taken on August 26, 2022, men strap a dagger to a rooster before a cockfighting match at the San Pedro Coliseum in Laguna province. Shut for two years during the Covid-19 pandemic, traditional cockfighting arenas have reopened across the archipelago nation. Banned in many countries, cockfighting is hugely popular in the Philippines, where millions of dollars are bet on matches every week.
(AFP /Jam Sta Rosa)
I
n a raucous cockpit in the Philippines, Dennis de la Cruz grins from ear to ear as he watches his roosters slash their opponents to death in a frenzy of blood and feathers.
Shut for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional cockfighting arenas are getting back to full capacity across the archipelago nation.
Cockfighting is hugely popular in the Philippines, where millions of dollars are bet on matches every week.
Roosters wearing bladed spurs on their legs go beak to beak in a brutal fight to the death, as spectators -- mostly men -- wager on the result.
Supporters defend the blood sport as being part of the Filipino identity and argue the birds would be eaten if they did not fight.
But opponents maintain it is cruel and should be banned, as it is in many other countries.
"In our village, more than half the residents are cockfighters," de la Cruz, 64, told AFP at a recent derby in San Pedro, a city south of Manila, where he fell one win short of the one-million-peso ($17,000) champion's pot.
