A legal home for fowl play

AFTER nearly 10 minutes of pitched battle, both fighting cocks were clearly worn down.

The handlers brought the birds back to the middle of the caged ring during a fight earlier this year on the grounds of CPP Senator Ly Yong Phat’s now largely deserted Safari Park.

A piece of clear plastic, placed between the birds so they could stare-off and muster some aggression, was spattered with blood, which spewed from the metal-spur-inflicted wounds.

A crowd of about 100 people – mostly middle-aged men, but including some women and children – began to shout as the fight was restarted once again, the roar rising with every strike.

“I think I’m going to lose,” said tuk-tuk driver Vanna, who bet $5 on the “blue” contender (identified by a coloured tag around his ankle), which was considered an underdog given that his “red” opponent was a few hundred grams heavier.

But, he added, “The bigger birds don’t always win. It’s difficult to tell.”

Though Prime Minister Hun Sen proclaimed cockfighting illegal in 2009, like many rules in the Kingdom, there are exceptions.

Business tycoon and ruling party Senator Yong Phat is one of those.

In September 2015, his border casinos in Koh Kong and Oddar Meanchey provinces received licences to run legal cockfights, a sport condemned as cruel and CONTINUED

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