Eternia.com

FORT WORTH, Texas - The last known cockfighting school in the United States is hanging up its spurs.

The final students, two brothers from Guatemala, completed the two-week course in November.

The school’s proprietor, 82-year-old Mike Ratliff, said he’s done teaching the craft at his place near the tiny hamlet of Blanket, Texas.

“I’m retired. I’m almost 83 years old. I’m going to take care of my animals and my chickens,” Ratliff said by telephone Friday as roosters crowed in the background.

Ratliff said he never charged for his services but “if they want to pay me, that’s all right.”

The Humane Society of the United States said Ratliff’s real goal is to win some more cockfighting prizes - a claim he denies.

But the organization touts Ratliff’s retirement as an indication that a brutal, bloody tradition is on the wane in the United States. Cockfights involve two or more fighting roosters that are put in an enclosure with razor blades or metal picks attached to their legs for the purpose of gambling or entertainment. The fights often result in “bloody wounds, gouged eyes and even death,” according to the Humane Society.

But Ratliff scoffs at the notion that cockfighting is on its last legs.

“The whole world likes it,” Ratliff said. “All of the South Pacific likes it. It’s been a sport since the beginning of time. The Humane Society has pretty much knocked it in the head in the United States but they can’t stop it in Mexico, Central America, the South Pacific and Hawaii. It’s the national sport in those countries. You aren’t going to get rid of it in the United States as long as you have Mexicans and other Latin Americans. They love it.”

Ratliff’s fascination with the sport began as a child when he saw two young chickens start pecking at each other.

“I remember the first time chickens came out of the shell fighting,” Ratliff said. “Actually, they were about two weeks old but they were pecking at each other’s heads. I ran into the house to get mother. I was about 5 years old at the time. I was hooked.”

That began a lifelong involvement with cockfighting that took him all over the world and led to the start of his cockfighting academy in 1968.

He said he researched the legality of a school with an attorney. But that didn’t stop the Texas attorney general from urging the Eastland County attorney, where Ratliff then lived, to look into the matter.

Ratliff said he paid a visit to the county attorney’s office.

“He happened to be a man who enjoyed the cockfights,” Ratliff said. “He said there was no legislation against me. He said: ‘Carry on.’”

A Texas Ranger once made a visit, he said, and even a representative of the Humane Society stopped by. But Ratliff was unapologetic.

“They wrote an article,” Ratliff said. “I didn’t care. I’ve never had a problem in my lifetime. I never had no problem with nobody.”

The Humane Society remains hopeful that cockfighting, which is still legal in Louisiana and New Mexico, will become a crime in every state. It is a felony in Texas and 32 other states but remains a misdemeanor in 15 others.

“I think there’s a good possibility it’s going to become illegal in Louisiana and New Mexico in 2007, but you can never count on it,” said John Goodwin, deputy manager of animal fighting issues for the Humane Society of the United States.

Raising cockfighting from a misdemeanor to a felony in 15 other states is also crucial, Goodwin said.

“When you can win $10,000 to $20,000 in a single night, a misdemeanor penalty isn’t going to discourage it,” Goodwin said. “I feel like the momentum is on our side. I feel like the days of cockfighting are numbered.”

“When you mix high-stakes gambling with a felony blood sport, tempers can flare. It’s not that surprising,” Goodwin said.

Source: Kentucky.com

Filed under: Bizarre