The copper era., 1907-02-28
What a Visitor Thinks of Western Badger
FIGHTS.

am but a sojourner in Arizona and
perhaps it is not laudable that l
should undertake to criticize the
morals of your inhabitants, yet it
seems strange to me that western
men, whom have always considered
had preponderance of good quail
ties, should enjoy such scenes as [
understand takes place at Morenci,
near your little city, almost every
week, or as often as wild badgers can
be obtained.
1 remained there over night short
noticed a crowd gathering down in
that open space in front of the hotel.
Being somewhat uneasy about the
gathering of a crowd in a western
ment. 1 was told that it was "Bad-
ger Fight" and was further informed
that a badger and bull dog make
terrible fight. While I had no desire
while cannot understand that vein
of brutality that seems to remain in
the average human being from the
time of barbarism, was persuaded
by the gentleman I was talking to,
he also being a stranger to the COM
munity, to go down and see what they
we're doing.
When we arrived 1 found the crowd
greatly excited, and there were
several fights over bets, believe, for
bets of greater or less amounts of
money were being made freely. 1t
seems that they keep the badger in
sort of dog house from which he has
to be drawn, for he will not come out
and fight unless attacked by the'dog,
but when once they get together L
am told that often both dog and bad
ger are literally torn to pieces, and
it is frequent that both die. / bhor
brutality, and it really distresses me
to think that men who are otherwise
good, respectable citizens, men of
business and men of affairs, should
enjoy seeing two dumb brutes torture
each other, even to death, in this
manner. 1 endangered to argue with
two or three young men regarding
the degrading influence of such
scenes, but they would not listen, and,
even in my presence, raised their
voices offering to bet money on one
or the other of the poor brutes.
Over on the other side of the crowd
| saw man with a white bull dog on
a chain. The dog was struggling to
get at the place where the badger
was concealed, and it seemed all the
man could do to hold him. There
was a crowd around the dog and
several men were loud in their protest
that the dog had been changed since
they made their bets, and others were
loudly claiming that the man selected
to pull the badger out for the fight
had bets on the dog winning. 1
never witnessed such an excited
nothing towards stopping the fight 1
returned to the hotel before the final
selection was made as to who was to
have the ''honor" of pulling the bad
ger out from the place where they
kept him. 1t seemed that this par
ticular act of brutality was con-
sidered an "honor.r A short tine
after returning to the hotel I heard
shout and supposed that either the
poor dog or badger had been torn to
pieces by its antagonist.
But it really makes me ashamed of
my fellow man to think that such af-
fairs are carried on among civilized
people and apparently enjoyed by
civilized men. We get very indig-
nant about the bull fights in Mexico
and pass laws to prohibit such scenes
in our own country. Yet communi-
ties, otherwise law abiding and JUS
tiCe loving, will allow such scenes as
dog and badger fights to occur even
within the shadow of their home fire
lights. 1 saw many young men there
and not a few boys, and they all
SeemGu cAClISu W IHC PllSH VI AlCHIy'
Such scenes might be endured under
protest in the rat-baiting slums of
great city, or among barbarians, but
in this day and age it is a blight on
any fair community, degrading to
your intelligence, only serves as a
lesson in barbarism to your youth,
and should be abolished for the sake
of common decency.
GAN ORCERVER -