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I have always though game behavior is more of how the birds behave with each other. Aggression on people is a different drive I would say, but surely some wiser will say? I do agree with the decision to put him down, that sort of stuff is unacceptable.
Yep, gameness is a behavior toward each other (usually defined as a will to continue fighting to the death). But that isn't the case towards people at all, most cocks can be gentled down from being aggressive if handled, but I'm not saying they all can either. A lot of people tend to characterize gameness with the fighting spirit toward anything, even people- and because of this some people will even select hens or cocks that do this. But this isn't the case at all if you ask me, in my opinion manfighters arise from being scared- since even many of the main yard breeds and the junglefowl are fight-to-the-death manfighters.
I was told one story once by a true junglefowl breeder, he lived in Asia and captured them in the wild (for some reason, I believe it was to preserve them in that area). His story was this- the cocks got along swimmingly as long as there were enough hens and space. But every single cock would eat you alive if you tried to mess with them. It was due to fear, the same thing that causes a lot of animals to attack and even people (fight or flight). I remember some Rubles we had, Redquills too.. They were the meanest roosters we've ever had, and every time you moved them they went underhack (Well, the Redquills didn't but it was known they weren't very gamey, not sure why we had them. And since the underhack term isn't used regularly on this forum, for people who don't know it is when they go into the typical scared stance, tightened feathers or sometimes feathers raised on the top of the head while they're either squatting or in some cases running, depends what they feel is the best thing to do.) And in my opinion, a gamecock shouldn't be that way. They should be confident, proud, and courageous.
So if you ask me, when people breed people aggressive birds for gameness they are being counter-productive at times. But that is their choice, I like to breed gentle birds, since you can look at the Asil or Shamo and see that the gentleness didn't effect the gameness at all.
-Daniel
Well said, Daniel. None of the cockers I have ever known have bred a manfighter, or even allowed one to breath on their property. Gameness is, by definition the determination to fight, even if you are losing. Has nothing to do with meaness or manfighting. Nobody(?) fights cocks anymore, but can you imagine setting down a manfighter who is heeled up in his weapon of choice? Might be like making love to a buz saw. That`s the reason cockers don`t and never have bred manfighters. But like Daniel said, some folks think that`s a good idea. Obviously they don`t consider the consequences. That is evidenced by the shear numbers of posts on BYC about "mean roosters". Barnyard stock are reproduced by mearly putting hens together with roosters. Any fool can do that and get chicks. If you care about your results, you will pay attention to what you`re breeding. Think about it..........Pop
