Philippines: Visayas - February 2008
Dear English-speaking readers, this page is an automatic translation of an article originally written in French. I apologise for any strange sentences and funny mistakes that may have resulted. If you read French, click on the French flag below to access the original, correct text:
Français Crazy atmosphere, in a cockfighting arena, in the Philippines! This video was shot in 2008 on the small island of Siquijor, in the Visayas. Sensitive souls should not watch it.
Cockfighting: the video
In February 2008, I told you from the Philippines about my visit to the cockfighting arena of the village of Enrique Villanueva, on the island of Siquijor. After the story and the pictures, here is the video !
You will be able to get an idea of the overexcited atmosphere (almost exclusively male) that reigns around this arena of angry gallinaceans. This is obviously not a place for the faint of heart or animal lovers. In the Philippines, these cockfights are very popular and are the object of passionate bets. Some people bet very big and leave more than feathers.
Updated, January 2018 : Forgive the poor quality of these images, shot in 2008 with a modest compact camera, with a video mode at only 480 or 640 pixels, I don't know, at a time when 4K didn't exist yet and when the iPhone 3G was about to become the new fashionable technological jewel...
The fight itself is very short. Each rooster has, fixed to his leg, a long curved and pointed blade, like a small sword. One guesses it is razor sharp and carefully sharpened for the occasion.
The two roosters are presented one to the other, held at arm's length or by the feathers of the tail by their respective owner. It is a question of exciting the animals a little by approaching them beak against beak. They are released for good in the arena when the bets are balanced on both sides.
Afterwards, it goes very fast. A whirlwind of feathers, everyone screams and shakes behind the wooden bars. In a few minutes, it's over... A guy cleans the arena for the next fight, and it starts again.
To read also → Well sharpened feathers by my fellow Quebec journalist Marie-Julie Gagnon, who bounces on my article in her blog Taxi Brousse, to take stock of the situation of cockfighting in the world ...
