YOU could easily drive through Belfield Works in St Mary without noticing anything special about the farming community. But almost every Sunday, and on public holidays, over the period December to August huge crowds gather at one venue to engage in one of the world’s oldest illegal blood sport — cockfighting.

The thrill they get from watching two specially bred roosters fight to the death is matched only by the tens of thousands of dollars they can win at the end of a day of the brutality that unfolds with each match.

“This is both a rich and a poor man thing, so it is getting bigger and better because bets can range from $30,000 all up to $500,000,” Anthony ‘Sowchow’ Davis told the Jamaica Observer North East.

Davis has been breeding and fighting game fowls for so long he now considers it his main source of income.

Davis who was eager to give the Observer North East more than a peek into the workings of this centuries-old sport said he got his first game rooster 20 years ago.

“From me a youth, bigger man use to deal with cockfight and me used to deh round dem and see how it work and so me decide me want fi get in it,” the 38-year-old explained.

In those days, Davis said cockfighting was not as prominent as it has become in the last 10 years.

“Now it is a big sport, almost like World Cup,” he said, as he invited the newspaper to view his prized brood of game hens and roosters.

“Yu see this one, it is priceless to me. No one can’t buy him because me nah sell him,” he said of the rooster which, having killed two other birds in previous matches, was being prepared for its third entry into the fighting pit.

Pressed further as to how much such a rooster would be worth, Davis picked up the bird and after looking it over thoroughly said “about $60,000”.

He knows that the decision not to sell his rooster to a ready buyer can be one which will either fetch him thousands of dollars in future bets or could backfire if he loses the bird in a fight, but it is a risk he is always willing to take.

“In December me lose both me money and me fowl in a fight, but is just so the sport go, because more time than not me win,” he said with a wide grin.

His lack of employment does not, however, prohibit him from buying the best of foods and medication for the birds as the aim is to have them ready for the sporting arena in under a year of birth.

Davis estimates that he spends approximately $50,000 a year to feed his roosters and hens.

“The cock dem feed on corn soaked in milk and we give them all sort of things to strengthen them,” he said, adding that they are even fed from the household pot.

The hens, which are kept for breeding, are not as well feted as the fighter cocks, which are also given special medication leading up to a fight to ensure that they battle to the death.

“We send we money go ah foreign go buy we proper medication fi dem,” he said.

Davis said the size of a rooster’s spur is what indicates when the bird is ready to be put in the ring. It is this spur which acts as a deadly weapon when both birds face off and is oftentimes the only thing that is retrieved after a fight.

He explained that the spur is often removed from a dead rooster and soaked in molasses until it is hardened.

“When it get tough we use tape to ban it on the spur of another cock to make it a more dangerous weapon when it is fighting,” he said.

Although there are no blaring billboards or trumpet calls, followers of this sport know where every fighting pit is in Jamaica and when a cockfight is being held.

Persons are said to come from all over the country and even overseas to attend and bet on the fights.

According to Davis, even women and children as young as seven years old enter fighter cocks into the ring

“When we ah fight fowl the road block with vehicle because people come from all over to watch or to set bet,” he said.

According to Davis, the cockfighting season begins in December and goes through to August, however he begins to prepare his birds by October of each year.

The preparation involves oiling the roosters with a special mixture which includes guinea hen weed, bay rum, sour orange and alum to harden the birds’ skin.

With the birds are deemed to be ready for the arena, Davis said they are taken to the pit where hundreds of fans would be gathered for the event, which is staged in a festive atmosphere with food and music.

At the pit in Belfield, patrons are charged a $100 entrance fee and those entering their birds in a fight pay an additional $200 to the owner of the pit.

Explaining how the process works from here on, Davis said each bird’s owner has the option of selecting which opponent their rooster will go up against.

Davis said persons of lesser financial means like himself and his friends have to pool their money to place bets of between $30,000 and $50,000 while the more affluent patrons will bet up to $500,000 at some cockfights. Even persons who are not entering a rooster in the fight bet amongst each other as to which bird will be left standing.

Like other sports, Davis said the referee is important to cockfighting as he is the one to declare the winner and this is usually determined by the failure of one bird to rise to its feet within three minutes of being struck down.

“I have seen fight go on for an hour while another time a fowl might dead in one minute,” Davis said.

Although he does not enter a rooster in every match, he still makes money from breeding fighter chicks, some of which could be seen in action even at that age when the Observer North East visited.

Davis explained further that at times persons will even purchase some of the severely maimed cocks if they are from good fighter breeds and use them to produce offspring.

“Sometimes ah rich man will come to the corner youth and offer him even a $10,000 or a $20,000 fi him cock, even if it mash up in a fight as long as it come from a good fighter breed,” he said.

There are, however, some birds which are never sold regardless of how maimed they are as they are retained by the owner for breeding.