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An Indian died after being stabbed by a rooster who trained for a cockfight.
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The rooster was equipped with a seven cm knife on its leg.
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Although cockfighting is illegal in most countries, it continues to attract fans.
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A rooster with a knife in its foot stabbed its owner to death during training for an illegal cockfight in India.
Thangulla Satish, 45, died of blood loss after the rooster stabbed him repeatedly in the groin with a seven-centimeter knife that was tied around the animal’s leg, according to the Associated Press.
Satish was among 16 people who organized the cockfight in the village of Lothunur, in the Indian state of Telegana, the AP reported.
Authorities are currently looking for the other 15 organizers, who could be charged with manslaughter. Each of them faces up to two years in prison, according to Al-Jazeera.
Animal rights activists say the sport is especially cruel because it takes advantage of the birds’ natural survival mechanisms to force them to fight.
To make the combinations more complicated, some cockfighting trainers place what is known as a “harpoon” on their birds – a long, dagger-like knife attached to the animal’s foot. Birds often have many of their feathers plucked before matches to make it difficult for opponents to attack, according to the ASPCA.
They are also sometimes drugged with methamphetamine to increase their aggressiveness.
Even birds that win their games often suffer injuries so severe that they are also killed.
Despite the Supreme Court of India banning the practice in the 1960s, cockfighting remains popular in many southern states.
In the United States, cockfighting is considered a crime in 42 states, although federal authorities continue to dismantle fighting gangs across the country. In August last year, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department broke a ring with more than 2,000 birds, USA Today reported.
Authorities in New York – in a 2014 frame that they dubbed “Operation Angry Birds” – arrested more than 70 people and confiscated more than 3,000 birds, the New York Post reported.
This is not the first time that a bird trainer has been killed by a gamecock. Last year, a 55-year-old Indian from Andhra Pradesh died after a gamecock cut him in the neck and abdomen during a match to mark the Hindu festival of Makar Sankranti. And in 2018, a 34-year-old man from Rajavaram, India, bled to death after a harpoon pierced his thigh and testicles.
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