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Cock Fight. Timor Leste
I had mixed feelings about photographing or even attending a cockfight. However during my stay in Timor I had seen numerous tethered birds round various properties and homes. Men are commonly seen walking round the town with a well groomed cockrell under their arm. As this appeared to be something which was very common and popular I thought I should experience it and make my own judgements. While it is clearly brutal sport for the birds I was surprised to find that as soon as one bird makes one strike against the other, the fight is over and the victor claims his prize. There was certainly no gruesome fight to the death as I had assumed. The losing bird left with one small flesh wound, the owner with a wounded pride, both able to fight another day. However I wouldn’t want to have been cut by the lethal looking blades that were tied to the birds feet.