Earlier this year, TIME carried a story about a cockfight in California. Organizers were surreptitiously holding an event (cockfighting is illegal in California), when one of the birds flew away from the ring toward a spectator named Jose Luis Ochoa.
In this match’s variation, one organizer had tied knives to the bird’s legs. As a result, Ochoa was stabbed in the calf; he bled to death.
John Goodwin, member of California’s Humane Society, was asked to comment on the death. He responded, “I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, considering the knives they put on those birds.”
Reflecting on this tragedy, I cannot help but think of the Bible’s constant admonition of sowing and reaping. (Not to mention the Hindus, who instinctively observe this universal reality and label it karma.) However, there is a passage in Proverbs that captures well the spirit of cockfighting and other activities cruel to animals, “Good people are kind to their animals, but a mean person is cruel.” (Prov. 12:10.) CEV
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