Less Talk, More Cock

Because intertube blog-thingies don't have to be factchecked, we can just pass on these statistics from the Mexican Association of Fighting Cock Raisers without ruining everything by checking it out.

Photo: InQro.com

The Cocksmen staged a protest here a couple days ago over a small town's refusal to allow a cockfighting tournament to take place there. In reminding us that it's all about jobs, the association maintains that, in Querétaro alone (the 29th-smallest state in Mexico), there are 13,000 cockfights every year, involving 400,000(!) birds, which come from 2,000 farms, which employ 20,000(!!) people, and which generate (nationwide, not just in Querétaro) 1.5 billion pesos - about $120 million - in revenue for the government, mostly though permit fees.

We've managed to live here for four years without ever seeing a cockfight, and only seldom see them advertised - but, again, we don't want to ruin it by questioning the assertion that there are 35 sanctioned cockfights a day, every day, here in li'l ol' QRO, each involving 32 or more birds - or to quibble with the notion that the queretano fighting-cock industry employs as many people as Perdue Farms. Instead, we'll just applaud the honesty of the Association's president, Efraín Rábago Echégoyen, who says that if these governmental obstacles and delays are allowed to continue, they'll just have to hold "clandestine" cockfights instead. In other words, "if you don't let us do this legally, we'll have no choice but to do it illegally." As lobbyists go, this guy's cock is bigger than most.

See you at Fight Club!