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.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS