A video came out on YouTube yesterday which featured Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal as soltadores in a Dominican cock-fight. A soltador is the person who releases the rooster to go and fight. The video was eventually removed from YouTube (awwwwwww), and animal rights groups instantly began formulating a horribly constructed comparison.
Pedro Martinez = Michael Vick
I don't know if anyone knows who Vick is. Used to be an NFL quarterback; tiny, teeny, hardly covered story about him running a dog-fighting ring. Well PETA, and The Humane Society have already started their barking about Pedro.
But let's just have a short education of the differences between Pedro and Vick.
Cock-fighting is legal in the Dominican Republic. Dog fighting is illegal in the US.
Cock-fighting is an accepted part of Dominican culture, like bull fighting in Spain, or American Gladiators in the US. Dog fighting is not an accepted part of American culture.
Pedro's role in the cock-fight was similar to a celebrity throwing out the first pitch of a baseball game. Michael Vick actually ran the dog fighting ring.
People eat chickens! I just had some McNuggets. Very few people actually eat dogs.
Let's be honest with ourselves. If one of our friends - that sketchy friend we all have - invited us to an underground cock-fight; we'd go. We'd have some beer, smoke some cigars, bet on a cock, and enjoy ourselves.
We're all missing the big picture here: YouTube used to be cool. But since Google took it over, it's become legitimate. They took down all the highlights from the Super Bowl at the bequest of the NFL. Then the cock-fighting video with Pedro gets removed from the site. I didn't even get to see the video before they took it down.
All I can do is use my imagination to envision Pedro and Marichal, setting two roosters loose to peck at each other in El Coliseo Gallistico de Santo Domingo (Santo Domingo Cockfighting Coliseum), pictured below.
And who won the fight? Was it Pedro's bird, or Marichal's?
Source:
Associated Press/The Toronto Star article
