Cockfighting in the Philippines: Bloody Spectacles

Dhe voices of the spectators break out. Hand signals and looks seal bets while two roosters are placed in the arena. Wings flap and feathers fly. The cockfight begins. Spurred on by their natural territorial behavior, the roosters will immediately attack each other, aggressively poking their beaks and feet in the opposing direction. The end, in almost all cases, is caused by the four-inch blade tied to the foot of each rooster. As a result, the frenzy of blood and feathers is often over after a few minutes, sometimes seconds – and at least one of the two opponents is dead.

Cockfights – or e-sabong – and the associated gambling are extremely popular in the Philippines, especially among men. In addition to a church and a town hall, every small town in the Philippines almost always has a cockfighting arena where weekly fights are held. It’s also joked in some places that women attend Sunday church services while men spend their morning betting on their favorite rooster.

Cockfighting as a business model

An entire industry has developed around the bloody spectacle. In a regular tournament, wagers per fight can be as high as $7,000. International professional tournaments, such as the World Slasher Cup, which takes place every year in Manila, achieve stakes of up to 75,000 euros per match, with several hundred fights within a week. The millions of dollars in bets across the country also generate significant tax revenue, so the Philippine government has no interest in a cockfighting ban either.

Animal protection organizations repeatedly advocate a ban and criticize the unnecessary brutality of blood sports as animal cruelty, since the roosters have to fight to the death. For this reason, the sport is also banned in many countries. Campaigns against the brutal practice have had few supporters in the Philippines for years.

Cockfighting advocates defend the sport with reference to Filipino traditions and national identity. They also argue that the roosters are cared for and cared for before the fights, so they lead a better life than the hens and roosters in the poultry farm.

In a country where there is great social injustice and social advancement is particularly difficult, the cockfighting arena also represents a neutral zone. Poor and rich meet here, play according to the same rules and have the same chances of winning or losing.

Dennis de la Cruz, whose father has long owned a cockfighting arena in San Pedro, near Manila, says more than half of the villagers in his hometown attend the cockfights. He himself lives exclusively from the profits of his cockfights and has never taken up a conventional profession. He relies entirely on the roosters that his nephew breeds on a specially built farm.

Although the fighting cocks crow loudly 24 hours a day, they can be found in their triangular shelters across the country and are considered prized possessions. Depending on the breed and pedigree of the animal, it can be worth several hundred or thousands of euros and even increase this. Because a rooster that not only wins, but also survives (often the victorious rooster also dies after the fight), increases its value and that of its offspring.

Lockdown in the cockpits

When the cockfighting arenas were closed at the beginning of the Corona pandemic in May 2020, many breeders had to sell their roosters at dumping prices or throw them in the cooking pot. Others held illegal tournaments to pay their bills.

Others switched to the illegal e-sabong, where cockfights could be streamed online and bets placed with as little as 100 Philippine pesos. Despite the official ban, the online fights enjoyed great popularity and soon also generated high sales. And with spending heavy due to the pandemic, the Philippine government soon changed its stance on the e-sabong and declared them admissible in October 2020.

Cockfights were now streamed from empty arenas, 24 hours a day. Since the online platforms were easily accessible and it was now possible to bet around the clock, interest in the betting portals exploded, and the state also benefited with income of more than 10,000 euros per month. Revenue that should benefit the healthcare system battered by the pandemic.

However, online gambling has thrived at the expense of society. After a short time, the first problems became apparent e-sabong triggered: The great popularity of betting drove numerous Filipinos to ruin. Many gambled away everything they owned, driving them into the hands of loan sharks. Gambling debts led to increased thefts, robberies, kidnappings and caused increased suicides. According to media reports, a woman even tried to sell her child to pay off her debts. Crime rates were rising in all walks of life, and police officers were also looking for ways to pay off their rapidly growing debts.

Then, in May 2022, just before the presidential elections, increasing public pressure led Rodrigo Duterte to e-sabong to be banned again in order to counteract the negative social effects. The operators had to immediately take their websites offline and were no longer allowed to accept bets.

Since then, cockfighting has lured its fans back into the arenas, and only on Sundays and public holidays, where it’s less easy for them to get into debt than online gambling. The losers are and will remain the animals.