This Thursday, November 14, 2024, a bill – which has little chance of succeeding – is being examined in the Senate, in order to prohibit “bullfighting and cockfighting in the presence of minors under 16 years of age”, in order to “preserve them from exposure to violence”. On this occasion, we suggest you reread this report on “cockerel competitions” published last year.
In Nord-Pas-de-Calais too, we have traditions: Welsh, carnival and cockfights. If the first two are unanimous, this is much less true for the last, to the point that this practice was believed to be extinct. This is not the case, and although the tradition continues, it is nevertheless discreet. It was also thanks to a call to demonstrate from the animalist party that we learned of the organization of fights on Saturday in Beuvry-la-Forêt, in the North. Obviously, we wanted to go see. Reporting.
There are still a few gallodromes in Nord-Pas-de-Calais, but on Saturday, it was in the middle of a sports hall that the arena, or rather the park, was set up. At the entrance, we are stamped on our hands with blue ink once the amount of the ticket has been paid: three euros. Immediately on the right, on trestle tables, the refreshment bar. On the left, behind some screens, we imagine from the cries emanating from them that this is where everything is happening. But before accessing the park, you have to go along the “arming zone”, the place where the “cocklers” equip their fighters with gaffs, a sort of sharp metal spurs, fixed on the birds’ claws.
For betting, “nothing is written, it’s a question of words”
Around the park, dozens of spectators or participants have already taken their seats. At a glance, we have 98% men and, in clothing, khaki green dominates. “Many are hunters, like me,” explains Arnaud Delplanque, president of the Société chasse place and organizer of the competition. Aged around sixty, for as long as he can remember, he has always witnessed fights without participating in them. “Before, it was the Beuvry football club that organized this, but the managers decided to stop,” he explains. So with a friend, we wanted to take up the torch so that the tradition does not die out. » Because on this subject, the law is very clear: cockfighting is prohibited in France, with the exception of Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where it is considered a local tradition. It is still necessary to justify that this tradition is uninterrupted, in other words “that at least one fight per calendar year is organized in the municipality so that it retains its authorization”, specifies Arnaud Delplanque.
The cries heard as soon as you entered were not those of the roosters, but the calls of the punters gathered around the park. “Five Bernard”, “five Michel”… A cacophony which, at first glance, goes in all directions for the uninitiated. “In fact, people bet among themselves on the victory of this or that rooster,” explains a spectator. Nothing is written, it’s a question of words. » The cockroaches are in the park, their animals in their arms, holding their legs firmly while they remove the protection that hides the blunders. Before releasing them, there is a ritual. “They visit the weapons, each looks to see if the other’s blunders are consistent. Afterwards they present the roosters face to face then put them down and must withdraw immediately,” explains an informed amateur.
This is where we get into the hard part and the noise from the oddsmakers stops. It usually only takes a few seconds for the fighters to lunge at each other. “Hit him, but hit him, pickle,” shouts a sixty-year-old in hunting fatigues. Quite rare “encouragement” however, the atmosphere during the fights being rather strangely silent. The only noise comes from the roosters themselves, as they move to roost. That, and feathers flying in all directions. Quickly, the fighters are out of breath, exhausted, panting, lying on their sides for a short rest. Until one of them lunges at his opponent again. If one gains the upper hand, it will peck the other’s head with its beak until death ensues. “The judges can stop the fight if a rooster is injured or dead,” recognizes the organizer. In fact, several died before the end of the five regulatory minutes.
Ban on filming and photographing fights
Throughout the afternoon, clashes continued. “Parts”, the cockroaches prefer to say. Just as we do not say of a rooster that it fights, but that it “plays”. Euphemisms to hide what animal rights activists call a barbaric practice? “Yes, it’s perhaps a little cruel,” concedes one of the organizers. But this is nothing compared to what is done in industrial farms,” he insists to a colleague from BFM, who is banned from filming the fights. They recognize that this question is a bit delicate, so we were advised against introducing ourselves as journalists and taking photos. A rule that aficionados apply to themselves. We must face the facts that images of a blood-stained park from which plucked animals emerge in pitiful condition would not serve their cause.
On Saturday, there were 42 fights, a lot of money exchanged and an impossible to know number of deaths. The roosters who died there will be eaten by their owners, “we’re not going to throw them in the trash anyway,” says one participant. The others, provided they are not in too bad condition, will be treated with a view to fighting in a future competition. “There is one, last year, he won eight fights in less than three years,” assures us a forty-year-old. The star of the moment who excites punters but whose end in nuggets or nets is written in advance.
