Cockfighting is illegal in all 50 US states and in many countries but remains a significant underground activity causing severe welfare harm to roosters.
Cockfighting imposes severe, deliberate suffering: roosters are conditioned through deprivation and provocation, outfitted with metal weapons, and forced to fight to injury or death. The culture of cockfighting makes welfare intervention particularly difficult because it is embedded in community practice and identity in some regions. Enforcement, community engagement, and alternative livelihood development are the combination that animal welfare researchers identify as most effective.