Much a-doodle-do about fighting

JERRY: But Kramer, cockfighting is an illegal and immoral activity!
KRAMER: Only in the United States.

LET'S take a look at the lineup of the Honolulu Quarterback Club. Hmm. Baseball broadcaster. Assistant football coach. "Former Saint Louis football player and current cockfighting advocate."

Bingo.

Meet Waldemar Doane, in the chicken fight game now for almost 50 years.

"I think it's a great sport," Doane says. "A beautiful sport."

Yes, there is violence and death. Blood? Sometimes.

But he believes in it.

These birds fight. It's what they do. Let them run free, and they'd kill each other in the yard.

A fighting chicken's life expectancy is one fight. If he wins, two fights. And so on.

"Is there an undefeated champion Muhammad Ali rooster?" Jim Leahey asks from the audience.

Doane's best bird went for nine fights, many years ago, had been cut only a couple of times in all those bouts.

But the last one was the telling blow. He died a winner.

But he died nonetheless.

The law isn't against cockfighting itself, Doane is quick to point out, but cruelty to animals. And most who argue against it, he says, have never seen it, never been. They don't know what it's like, not really. What the birds are like.

"I don't think the law is ever going to change," he says. "Some people say that it is cruel, and can't prove it.

"And my side says it is not cruel!

"And we can't prove it."

So instead he talks about things other than blood. Of training and nutrition.

"These cocks are athletes, whether you want to believe it or not," he says.

A University of Texas study showed the droppings will tell you if a fighting chicken is in shape, if he's ready, if you're feeding him just right.

"Now can you imagine yourself watching a chicken ..." Doane says. But he does. It's important.

He tells the story of two tour bus drivers who took a detour to the chicken fight, many years ago. It must have been a can't-miss event, because the buses were still full of tourists at the time, all about to get the really behind-the-scenes tour. There they were, Wilma and Mabel from Wisconsin, soaking up the action.

Some of them didn't want to get back on the bus to leave.

A well-conditioned athlete is a fighting machine, Doane says, leaping high into the air, kicking, kicking, kicking. And his voice says this is the proudest moment, that this is when a chicken is most alive.

That fleeting second is short-lived. The contestants, too.

See the Columnists section for some past articles.

Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com

Source: http://starbulletin.com/2003/07/08/sports/simpson.html

LMP president advises mayors to be extra alert
By Yolanda S. Fuertes

BINALONAN -- Do not go out without bodyguards. Do not expose yourselves unnecessarily to danger. Do not engage in cockfighting. In short, be extra careful.

That is the advice of Mayor Ramon Guico Jr., president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, to his fellow mayors after several of their colleagues were gunned down recently.

Guico said it could not be helped that mayors make enemies, especially when implementing projects that could hurt influential people in the town, which makes them targets for liquidation.

"Once you enter politics, you make enemies, especially in the local scene where the relationship tends to be more personal. This is why mayors must be extra careful," Guico explained.

He added that some mayors are confident that nothing will happen to them just because they are mayors of their respective towns; go around unescorted thus exposing themselves to killers.

He likewise advised the mayors to stop engaging in cockfights because while at the cockpits, people tend to lower their guards especially when they're enjoying the games. It is during these times that they are attacked.

Tayug Mayor Guerrero Zaragoza and Monkayo Mayor Joel Brillantes were killed while at the cockpit arenas. Guico said he used to play cockfights, too, but has stopped because "I might get killed in the cockpit."

Earlier, Pangasinan mayors asked the Philippine National Police for permits to carry guns to protect themselves.

"We have been granted the permit to carry short guns, but the permit to carry long guns depends on the situations of the mayor. If there are threats on their lives, then they can have the permit," Guico added.

Aside from Zaragoza, the other Pangasinan mayors earlier killed were Laoac Mayor Westrimundo Tabayoyong who was shot at the municipal auditorium, Rosales Mayor Jose Peralta who was shot in front of the church in the town and OIC Mayor Vicente Kho of Binalonan, who was shot in front of his residence.

Source: http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/pan/2003/07/09/news/lmp.president.advises.mayors.to.be.extra.alert.html