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.
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