Cockfighting Continues, Legally or Otherwise

KAMPONG CHAM, Cambodia - Roosters flapping their wings furiously, lunging at each other with the sharp spurs on their legs and feathers flying about, amid the backdrop of roaring crowds – this is a common scene in many a cockpit in Cambodia.

Cockfighting is easy to find in every city and provincial town in this country, although it is considered a form of gambling and is illegal. In the capital Phnom Penh, there are no fewer than 10 cockpits that are believed to have been built by high-ranking government officers or influential people. Gambling around cockfights occur daily or in some, weekly, and especially on weekends.

It’s just like boxing, enthuses Sok Noy, a cockfighting aficionado. If boxers use their hands and legs, roosters spread their wings and ‘punch’ with their spurs in the battle for a knockout victory.

In cockfighting circles, the roosters are divided into different categories depending on age and experience and weight, which is a most important factor. Before a fight starts, the roosters’ weight need to be taken on a credible scale “I can be cheated about the rooster’s experience -- how often it used to fight, how many times it won and how old it is, but I cannot forget to weigh, because my rooster cannot win if it weights less,” Sok Noy explained.

Cockfighting has brought Sok Noy to nearly all provinces and towns in the kingdom. “I used to travel at least nineteen provinces, except to Kratie, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri, and Pusat. But I plan to go there because they also have cockpits,” he said.  “Two years ago, I went to Pailin and found a very good half-breed rooster. It was so strong. It made me win at least eight times before it died.”

For all his expertise in cockfighting, he does not own the roosters at the farm where he stays and works.  “In the farm, I just get a salary and find some extra money from the cockpit where I (am on) stand by.

I loan my roosters or sometimes some players need services like having their roosters taken care of a few minutes before a fight,” Sok Noy said.  “It’s not my own business because I don’t have money, however much I would want to it to be so. One needs a thousand dollars to set up each farm, and cockpits like this have daily expenses for the roosters.”

TENDER LOVING CARE

In the farm, the roosters are kept separately in bamboo baskets, in clean conditions with enough ventilation, not a few metres away from his bed. In total, Sok Noy and two younger men look after more than 50 roosters that have been imported from different places in Cambodia and some from neighbouring Vietnam.

The three of them work in the farm from morning to evening daily, and in the cockpit on Saturdays and Sundays.  

“We have to do our jobs from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., sometimes up to 9 p.m. for our 50 roosters. Our daily job starts from cleaning the rooster’s dung, feeding them food and medicine, training them, as well as having them go under the sun one by one,” Sok Noy explained. “I would say that those roosters get better care than that for my wife, and myself.”

Chimed in Va Socheat, a 23-year-old friend ofSok Noy: “Everyday I and my friend have to spend at least 20 minutes for a rooster to get exercise, bathe it, feed it, give it medicine.” He recalled that sometimes, he and his friend joke that the roosters sleep, live and eat better than they do, except of course for the fact that when the roosters are brought to the cockpit, they often end up bloody, or dead.

Farthest from their concerns over recent years is avian flu, although scientists say close contact with chickens come with the risk of transmitting the H5N1 virus from birds. “Blood, dung, saliva, and the chickens’ body are so dangerous for H5N1 when humans touch them directly without self-sanitation,” said Ly Sovann, a physician who is chief of disease surveillance at Cambodia’s health ministry and on top of efforts to curb avian flu.

He said that while Cambodia does not have a special initiative focused on avian flu’s links to cockfighting, it has an overall education campaign about bird flu on television, radio, and print media.  “These do not target specific groups, but can give all information on the prevention of H5N1,” he explained.

“We have some projects working on bird flu, but we do not have a specific project on cockfighting,” added Tan Try, Phnom Penh-based information officer for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which has various programmes on H5N1 prevention and awareness.    

Indeed, even at the height of avian flu outbreaks and consequent deaths in neighbouring Vietnam just across the border in 2003, cockfighting fans kept coming to the fights, recalls a cockpit owner in a suburb of Phnom Penh who asked for anonymity.

“Why do they have to be afraid? I learned that this disease can affect them only if they touch sick roosters, but our roosters are not sick.

Anyway if they are sick, the most seriously affected would be the rooster feeder who stays with them nearly the whole day. But until now, we have not seen any rooster feeder in the country die yet,” he said.

“All the roosters are taken food care of. If they are sick, they cannot go to the cockpit. That’s why my clients aren’t afraid,” he added.

TIME FOR PRECAUTIONS

But for Ly Sovann, taking precautions is much better. “We do not know exactly how H5N1 can affect humans besides directly touching them. That’s why we do not have any action at the cockpit yet, but they have to wear masks. Prevention first is better,” he pointed out.  

Cambodia first reported bird flu in its chickens in early 2004. According to World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, the country reported eight human cases of bird flu from 2003 until end-2008. Of these, seven have died, but it is not clear how they got H5N1.

“When I heard of H5N1 deaths, sometime I feel terrible too. But it (working with roosters) is my job, so I have to do it. I always follow the prevention rules that they teach us about on TV, radio, and print media advertisements,” Sok Noy explained.

“When my boss brings a new rooster to the farm, I keep it far from the other roosters for at least two weeks. When I see any rooster get sick, I keep it away and try to treat it. I apply my sanitation procedures all the time. I and my fellows always apply these rules.”

In Cambodia, education spots on bird flu have appeared on nearly all TV channels, some popular radio stations and leading newspapers. They talk about how to understand bird flu and its risks, how to prevent it, and what to do if their animals get sick.

Va Socheat has seen the ads too, turning to show us the back of his T-shirt that has a message on bird flu prevention.

“With good self-sanitation, do not be afraid of bird flu,” it read.

“Today, we found a sick rooster in our farm, so we took it out and kept it away,” he said. Sometimes it happens that some roosters die and some recover after we try to give them medicine.

If they die, we bury them with white lime, but one thing is that we never tell the animal health officer (about the deaths).”

There is no need to inform the animal health officer because the chickens showed symptoms of normal illnesses and not bird flu, Sok Noy pointed out. “If there is a bird flu outbreak in the farm, I will know because when it happens, not only one or two roosters will die, but maybe ten or all of them.”

But he conceded that due to avian flu, the fellows who tend to the roosters did change a few things about how they do their work.

“After the bird flu outbreaks in our country, we decided to stop using some (old) ways of caring for our roosters, such as directly sucking the rooster’s mucus (to clear airways) by our mouths,” Sok Noy continued.

Sal, a cockpit director in the Cambodian town of Poipet on the country’s western border with Thailand, agrees that some things in the cockfighting pits have indeed changed.

Before, the cockpit used to have five rings for a pair of roosters to fight in, one after the other after 15-minute breaks. During these breaks, the roosters’ owners would suck their rooster’s blood (when wounded) and spit out saliva (mixed with chicken blood) to prepare them for the next fight -- but this is no longer done these days. “Every rooster has to fight until they win or die,” Sal said.

With pride, Sal says that since the avian flu first broke out, no roosters in his cockpit have died of H5N1.

caption: Tender loving care for roosters.

“I am sure, because I know clearly about the symptoms of bird flu. If my cockpit has H5N1, the roosters will have high heat, mucus, swollen faces, and die quickly. But my cockpit does not have those,” he continued. “All the roosters died because of fighting and injuries.”

Dr Chhum Vannarith, director of the health department of Banteay Meanchey province, where Poipet is located, says his province has been luckier than others.  “I would say that since 2003 till now, there have been no reports of H5N1 cases in our province, so we’ve been lucky, but we’re never complacent. We always make people understand about it and its dangers,” he added. 

According to Chhum, people in cockfighting circles are actually not a vulnerable group when it comes to bird flu because they do understand the disease and how to prevent it.

They usually live in or near towns, where information about H5N1 abound. Instead, he pointed out, the most vulnerable groups are poor people in remote areas who raise poultry for food and have little access to information about avian flu.

“I believe that those in cockfighting understand the information. Anyway, their roosters, before they are brought to the cockpits, are well taken care of and in good health, so H5N1 is rare for them. But for the people living in more remote areas, they sometimes they eat their dead poultry,” he said.

In Cambodia, there have so far been no reports of people who died after being exposed to risks linked to cockfighting. But in 2006, a 59-year-old man who bred and raised roosters died in the north-eastern Thai province of Nong Bua Lamphu. According to the Thai health ministry, the victim got sick after he treated his roosters with herbal medicines. But he did not want to tell the authorities about his sick chickens for fear they would be culled.

This hesitance to inform authorities is fact far from uncommon for owners of prized roosters in places like Cambodia and Thailand, where cockfighting is hugely popular.

Samroy Sorivong, a Thai breeder who raises more than 50 roosters around his house in Soy Lan Dan, Aranyaprathet in Sakeo province just across the border with Cambodia, said that none of his roosters have died from illnesses for nearly 10 years now.

“My roosters have never died from any disease, except that when they are old and it is time for them (to go). When they fall sick, I always treat them with my own hands, because I don’t want anybody touching my roosters. They’re so expensive,” he said, showing us the various herbs and medicines he uses.

His roosters sell for prices ranging from 1,000 to 30,000 baht (29.40 to 882 U.S. dollars). (Very good ones can fetch 100,000 baht (2,940 dollars) or more, but he does not have these expensive types.)

Everyday, what Samroy does is not so different from what Sok Noy, Va Socheat or Sal do. “I spend about twenty minutes for each rooster. I have to do this myself. I don’t need anybody to touch my roosters, because I’m afraid that they will do something that will harm them,” Samroy explained.

Chaleum Sithamavong, who owns a rooster farm in O’Thbeng village in Sakeo, Thailand, is confident about the health of his chickens. “Diseases don’t easily affect my rooster farm because everyday all the roosters get better care, food, and medicine,” he said. “All my roosters already got vaccinated, and I always read magazines that tell me how to breed and feed my roosters so they can become champions.”

A Thai veterinarian in Sakeo said that information campaigns about the risks of avian flu have had some impact, and that people have a better understanding of the illness and how to cope with it after the death of the Thai victim in 2006. There are also specialised books to guide handlers of roosters in more remote areas.

The veterinarian added that all of the poultry farms in the province receive regular visits from officials. “Our activities are not only to prevent H5N1, but all of the diseases,” he said.

LEGAL MATTERS

While cockfighting is illegal in Cambodia, it is legal in some areas in Thailand. “Cockfights in Thailand are not permitted in cities or towns, but it is legal,” said Samroy. “Every weekend, I bring our rooster to the cockpit approximately fifty kilometres from my house. At the cockpit, people can bet as much as they dare to.”

Over in Cambodia, owners of cockpits and rooster farms say that to build a cockpit, they have to ask permission from local authorities, using their influence or money under the table.

“It is an illegal game, because they were set up without proper licences, and it is another gamble. Everyday I see some people lose their property such as motorcycles, rings, watches and a lot of money (from gambling in cockfights)”, said a resident who lives near a cockpit in Poipet. “When I heard about bird flu I got really afraid, because my house is close to that cockpit.”
 
“What they (people who are into cockfighting) do, we do not have the right to stop. We only have the right to educate them, provide information to them. When they hear, they know, but what they actually do is very dangerous, because (if they get sick) they may affect their family members and the others,” said Dr Chhum Vannarith. “I appeal to them to please consider this point.” (END/IPSAP/SN/JS/08)

(*This article was also published in ‘Rasmei Kampuchea’ newspaper in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. It was done under the 2007-08 cycle of the Imaging Our Mekong Fellowship – Avian Flu Series.)