Note 7 — III
Reading edition
Cock-fighting is not alluded to in the “Ordinances of good government,” collected by Hurtado Corcuera in the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1779 cock-fights were taxed for the first time. In 1781 the government farmed the right of entrance to the galleras (derived from gallo, rooster) for the yearly sum of $14,798. In 1863 the receipts from the galleras figured in the budget for $106,000.
A special decree of 100 clauses was issued in Madrid on the 21st of March, 1861, for the regulation of cock-fights. The 1st clause declares that since cock-fights are a source of revenue to the State, they shall only take place in arenas licensed by the Government. The 6th restricts them to Sundays and holidays; the 7th, from the conclusion of high mass to sunset. The 12th forbids more than $50 to be staked on one contest. The 38th decrees that each cock shall carry but one weapon, and that on its left spur. By the 52nd the fight is to be considered over when one or both cocks are dead, or when one shows the white feather. In the London Daily News of the 30th June, 1869, I find it reported that five men were sentenced at Leeds to two months’ hard labor for setting six cocks to fight one another with iron spurs. From this it appears that this once favorite spectacle is no longer permitted in England.