Cocks and balls upsets animal rights group
It seems that a group of Chinese cocks playing with soccer balls has ruffled the feathers of the animal rights group known as PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). The organization is up in arms over the roosters playing soccer as it thinks the games will turn into all-out brawls because of the nature of the animals.
The soccer-playing cocks were the idea of Zhang Lijun of China back as she noticed the roosters had a good time when allowed to play with balls. She started throwing them mini-soccer balls to kick around a few years ago and was amazed how they reacted to them.
The entrepreneur is now organizing and holding mini-tournaments on the ancient streets of Shenyang, which is located in Liaoning province in northeast China. She stated the roosters don’t take any dives like some of the sport’s prima donnas do and are glad to play for chickenfeed.
However, while the cock soccer inventor is enjoying her moment in the sun, the animal rights community isn’t too happy about the games and thinks it’s a bird-brained idea. While the games look to be pretty harmless and definitely don’t come anywhere near the brutality that cock fighting produces, they can still set off some ferocious physical conflicts between the animals.
Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, stated that if cocks are placed in close quarters to each other with nowhere else to go it’s just in their nature to start fighting over the territory. She added that the animals are being exploited as they’re kicking at the ball when it’s near them because they’re agitated and trying to let off steam.
PETA stated that roosters and chickens are actually quite intelligent animals and might generally even be smarter than dogs and cats. Newkirk said because of their intelligence, people should be able to train the birds to play with a ball, but she’s against placing them in contests in front of crowds. She thinks the animals are being abused if they’re placed in public venues, especially if people are betting on them because their natural instincts will usually take over and there’s a good chance one or both of them will get hurt.
