Cock Fighting
Linda usually reads The Burleson County Tribune first and then passes it on for me to peruse with my one good eye. “Arson probed in Somerville,” “Jones receives probation in assault trial,” “Hospital district OKs Air Med deal,” “SO dealing with jail HVAC issues,” and “Och addresses Caldwell ISD board during meeting.”
Then my good eye fell on “Law officers stop cockfighting, issue citation.”
Now here is something worthy of my time!
It must have been a pretty good sized gathering: 62 citations issued. About twenty-five of the participants with whom the police wanted to chat fled into the woods and were not apprehended.
The law officers said they expect to issue more citations.
They found numerous roosters, living and dead.
At the time of this newspaper article's publication, the organizers of the event had not been determined. I suspect that some of the 62 cited participants just might reveal this information. By the way, organizing a cockfight ain't no misdemeanor: it's a felony.
The county chief deputy said, “…such activities often include individuals who may be involved in drugs or weapons violations or other illegal activities.”
Okay, let's take a deep breath and examine what we think about all this.
Well, over 80 folks gathered in one place in Burleson county is pretty remarkable and doesn't happen much outside of churches, athletic events, band concerts, the county fair, funerals, and dances. I'm impressed with their attendance which made me wonder how they notify the interested that a cockfight has been scheduled.
Being that I don't run with the cockfighting locals, I don't know what sort of folks they are. I assume most, if not all, are men. My mind's image of a woman at a cockfight is pretty scary. I assume they are gambling on the outcome of the events. I like to gamble myself, but I would prefer that no lives be lost in the process.
I thought I was just passing on a curious fact to a friend when I told him about the cockfight report. He responded that as a young fellow he was taken to a cockfight by an older relative. He seems to have been something which, to some extent, traumatized him because he said it was the worst thing he has ever seen.
The closest I've ever come to cockfighting was one evening while at one of the best bars in rural Texas, my friend commented that a fellow in the bar with us was a cockfight entrepreneur. Naturally, I took a good long look at this fellow and made more than my normal number of judgments. He was around seventy, a full head of wavy white hair, and as handsome as the Devil himself. His soul was beyond my view, but I suspect I would not want to view it anyway.
enough