Too frail to walk much any more, the old man cruises around his small farm on a scooter, weaving his way through the chickens that cluck and crow in a shrill storm of barnyard noise.
He stops near one rooster, no ordinary chicken. Large and magnificent with white, red and brown plumage, it is bred to fight -- and kill -- in a bloodsport dating back centuries and illegal in most states.
"The Chicken Man," as some locals call him, is 83-year-old Mike Ratliff, who since 1968 has taught an estimated 8,000 cockfighters around the world how to breed and train game birds at his "School for Beginning Cockers."
PHOTO: AP
Worn down by age and illness, he's closing shop, causing animal rights groups to cheer and Ratliff to lament the end of an era.
"I've been hooked on cockfighting since I was a little boy," Ratliff said, recalling how he watched at age five as new hatchlings pecked each other bloody. "There is no one to take my place."
Ratliff and the Humane Society of the United States agree on one thing -- that Ratliff's school was unique in the US. His last class met in November when two sons of a former student from Guatemala came to this tiny hamlet of 402 people in west Texas.
Cockfighting is still practiced around the world. Roosters are usually fitted with razors and gaffes designed to slash and puncture in a bloody death struggle.
Since voters in Oklahoma approved a ban on cockfighting in 2002, New Mexico and Louisiana are the only states that allow cockfights. But Texas permits people to raise fighters and teach breeding and training methods.
Experts say the sport is flourishing despite its mostly outlaw status. Enthusiasts print magazines -- the Feathered Warrior and the Gamecock are two examples -- and trade tips on the Internet.
Police bust up rings that flout the law.
With a cold wind whipping at his face, Ratliff rides his scooter past the breeding pens and through the rows of birds kept apart by tethers on their legs. Let them run loose and it would be bloody mayhem once the fighting instinct takes over.
Inside the cockhouse, the cool darkness is swamped by the clucking and crowing of about 20 roosters in small cages. Ratliff pulls one from the coop for its first training session -- running and jumping on an old mattress.
"God put them here for one purpose, and that's to fight," Ratliff said.
Animal rights activists consider Ratliff an outlaw promoting an illegal bloodsport. And they complain the sport and its underground channels promote illegal gambling and drugs.
Ratliff chafes at any suggestion of criminal activity.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The