Feathered Warriors Of Oakland.

Feathered Warriors Of Oakland.
Oakland Ca. 12/24/00
Story By Lynda Carson

Let there be no doubt..... LC

The paragaph below is from;Society and Animals-
The Selling Of game Fowl....

http://www.psyeta.org/sa/sa4.2/darden.html

A cockfight consists of several rounds of putting weight-matched pairs of specially bred roosters against each other in a pit. Depending on the circumstances, they usually fight until one is dead. The birds are often brightly colored, and, again depending on the circumstances, a fight may be awesomely savage and, in its way, beautiful, although bloody. Spectators usually make bets on the birds, in any of several fashions, frequently calling out bets even as the fight progresses. Birds may fight bare-heeled (rarely) or with knives (\"slashers\") or gaffs (slender, pointed spurs) attached. The knife fight is quicker and bloodier, and more rounds are held during a session. During the gaff fight, it is normal for both birds to be wounded and exhausted but still living, so they may be dragged to a pit where they lie near each other. One or the other will usually rise up one last time to peck at the other, evidencing the quality of \"deep gameness,\" and winning the fight. They may stay in the drag pit for an hour or more. During that time, other birds are fighting in the main pit. Most of the people involved in cockfighting are men, although there are some women involved. The settings for the fights are usually rural, and range from the informal fight in a farmer\'s yard to the formal, specially constructed pits in a few areas of the country such as the Neighbors Game Club in Cibola, Arizona, which seats 350 people.
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Feathered Warriors Of Oakland. By Lynda Carson

On Saturday December 23rd,in a hidden location somewhere in Oakland Ca,below a grove of eucalyptus
trees at the foot of a ravine,I interviewed a fellow that
I shall refer to as Mr. G.
Mr. G,as I call him raises Game Fowl for the Pits of
Mexico he tells me.Along the bottom of the ravine there are presently 3 Breeders that raise game fowl for pits
according to Mr.G,and he is one of the 3.
Since this is all quite new to me,such terms as game fowl,feathered warriors,pitmasters,game cocks,grit and steel,or cockfighting;these are words not normaly used in my day to day use of the english language.
I ran into Mr.G quite by accident upon this fateful day,as I was hiding amongst the trees with a Panasonic
3CCD Digital Video Camera/Recorder.Being rather determined to somehow get some footage of the game fowl this warm day right before Christmas,I was litteraly
trying to be very quiet,going from one tree to another so
that I may get close to the birds.
After getting some very close footage of some birds
near a group of coop\'s,I moved along the ravine to the next grouping of coop\'s where the birds are.Suddenly some guy appears within 25 feet of me from the coop\'s I was heading for,stops dead at the edge of the ravine,pulls out his pecker and starts whizzing right in front of God and the heavens above....Itry at that point to duck behind a
tree,but realized that I just got spotted.Keep in mind now,
that I\'m drenched in a nervous moment of persperation
streaming down my face for fears of the unknown.What if
someon was to shoot me on the spot and feed me to the birds?
Being short on stratigies,it took a whole half of a heart beat to come out of behind the tree in an attempt to be charming.Hi!Its just me hiding behind the trees being a sneak....To my surprise the fellow disappeared,and suddenly there was Mr.G in his place.
No doubt,it was one of those moments we looked eye to eye,and was\'nt to sure about what to do next.Well,I got
my courage up,and told the fellow that I was very curious about the birds.They had such a majestic crow,that I was lured in by the sound of the\"cock a doodle do\'ooooo\'ssss\"..
Not that I really believed that i fully explained why I was
sneaking up on his well hidden coop\'s.
Somehow,what ever I said it must have broken the ice,and Mr.G and I got to talking about his life and the
game fowl that he raises.From what I recall.....
Mr.G moved here to Oakland years ago from the state
of Michoac\'an Mexico.A very poor area in which the average person earns around $5.00 per day he cliams.His usage of the english language was quite well despite the times that I tried to assist him when he could not find the right words to describe what he had to say....
Hard times had fallen upon Mr.G due to a brain tumor.
He claims to have had 2 recent operations,in which the doctors tell him that he is lucky to be alive.Since Mr.G now has dizzy spells,and cannot work,he collects disability in the form of monthly SSI Payments.To supplement his low
disability payments of under $700.00 per month,Mr G raises game fowl for cockfighting.Right here in Oakland...
Mr.G tells me that he learned the skills of breeding game fowl from his father.I did not ask how long ago that
may have been,why, nor who it was that taught his father.
But I did learn that after raising the game fowl till they are around a year old or so,Mr.G ships the birds back down south to his father in Michoac\'an Mexico.Say what,I think?
This fellow travels all the way to Oakland Califonia,ends up with disability payments that allows him the time to breed game fowl for the Pits of deep south Mexico?He even happens to have had the skills trained into him from his father.This is not something that one learns at the local
courses found at the average Community College....
Not only does Mr.G have one hell of a setup,but his
storyline certainly seems remarkable.Where these birds are raised at the foot of the ravine,it is a spot well hidden from the view of the average joe....Same for the others nearby that also raise game fowl...
From what Mr.G claims it takes a knack to know what birds are fit to breed for cockfighting.The white chickens are not for cockfighting.They are used for meat,
or laying eggs.No doub\'t that this is one of the secrets of Colonel Sanders of KFC.
The game fowl Mr.G raises are quite beautiful with many colors from reddish hues flowing into shades of
yellowish browns.At times some of his friends stop by to drop off birds that are around 3 months old,and Mr.G raises them till maturity from there.
Mr.G raises around 8-9 birds at a time,and as he sends them off to Mexico to fight to the death in the Pits,
he replaces the old with the new.When I requested getting some video footage of one of his birds sitting inside a very small cage right in front of me,Mr.G suddenly became very cautious and politely declined to allow me permission.
I then lightly probed some more into his interesting life with a few more questions that got him going again...
Mr.G goes on to tell me that he loves his birds very much,and that it\'s hard for him to let them go off to the Pits.I recently was hidden,observing one of the other local breeders of these fine birds,and from what I saw he wore blue gloves as he grabbed a bird from the coop.Next he grabbed another,and with a bird in each hand he shoved them face to face to stir up the fighting spirit in them.Yes,
the breeders from what I have observed actualy train the game fowl for fighting before sending them to the Pits and their death.The fellow I watched,shoved the birds into
the face of each other,would eventualy drop one of the birds onto the ground (pit),and then he would drop the other bird on top of the one he just let fall to the ground.
If Mr.G does the same,I wonder what he means by love?
As I\'m deep in thought,listening to Mr.G,suddenly a couple of children run up to us,and I get to meet Mr.G\'s
daughter and his nephew for a brief moment.Me on one side of the fence,they on the other side.Mr.G tells me that he also has a son around 12 years old,and I guessed his daughter to be around 7-8 years old.It all seemed rather strange.I had to keep reminding myself that this was actualy Oakland California,and not some seedy little village
lost out in a foreign land.I was standing upon a mound of
debris,and surrounded by old mattresses,scrap metal,etc...
The hillside above was strewn with debris,and overgrown
with plants and huge trees....It was surreal....Not the sort of place one has a picknick in,yet quite beautiful all the same.Remote.Hidden.Lush with thickets,and abundant life.
Beautiful Oakland...Before the founding developers went rampaging thru this area,it must have really been a sight
to see....
Eventualy,I asked what Mr.G he would do if I grabbed some video footage of his birds even tho he told me that I did not have his permission?While pondering this question as he watched me intently,I slowly started to turn on my video cam,and switched on the mic switch.I could hear it hum into life.In a stunning surprise,Mr.G says
wait a second,let me grab a diferent bird since the one I was about to film was sick he claims.He grabs the bird from the very small cage,and wisks it away in a flash.This
man can handle his birds I thinks to myself.What seemed to pass for an eternity tho only seconds have passed,I sit
there alone wondering if he went to grab a shotgun,or just found an excuse to run with the bird into his coop\'s.Will I ever see him again flashes thru my brain......
Suddenly he\'s back with his most beautiful bird!His
pride and joy!He proudly displays the tallons of the bird to me as tho I\'m supposed to know what to look for,or for me to accept my cue to exclaim what sharp tallons you have
grand ma!This fellow is full of surprises...
Quickly he placed the game fowl into the tiny cage the other was just removed from,and with the video camera ready to go,I started filming what I could.Of course I politely asked Mr.G to pull away over to the side as to keep him out of the picture.I also promised I would not got to the Police.Raiseing these game fowl is not illegal.Cockfighting is illegal.To my knowledge,cockfighting
is banned in 47 states,but may be legal in Oklahoma,
New Mexico,and Louisiana.I believe that theres 3 national
publications for the avid Pit Masters as they may be called.Since I know very little about this subject of cockfighting,I suggest that for those that seem curious
that they check out a few websites that I may recommend.
In closing Mr.G tries to assure me that he\'s not into game fowl breeding for the money.He loves the sounds of roosters crowing around his home he claims.
When he sells his birds,he gets around $30.00-$70.00 a piece,depending upon the qualities of what the Pit Masters
see in any given fowl.The cockfighters/pitmasters alledgedly have an eye for guessing which birds shall be winners or losers.But what do I know?
When Mr.G told me that he loves his birds so much that he never went to a cockfight,was I actually supposed to believe him?I turned around to film some birds running lose thru the tree\'s that Mr.G will try to catch later,then slowly packed my equipment away,thanked Mr.G for his
story and wandered off back thru the grove of trees trying to find my way out of this hidden location in Oakland California. Lynda Carson 12/24/00
Click Below For More Info On Cockfighting...

http://www.pitmaster.com/

http://www.pitmaster.com/grit&steel/