The law that was supposed to ban cockfighting throughout Spain left it, in practice, intact. Law 7/2023, of March 28, on the protection of animal rights and welfare included in its first draft an article 27 that expressly prohibited organizing, holding, or publicizing these fights anywhere in the national territory. That paragraph was removed during the parliamentary process. What remained was a law that excludes from its scope production animals — a category into which the Spanish Fighting Cock can legally be placed, having been recognized as a livestock breed since 2007 — and that only bans fights when they involve companion animals or wild animals in captivity. The result: Andalusia and the Canary Islands maintain their legal exceptions, and cockfighting remains legal in both autonomous communities.

Two exceptions defying the rest of the country

Animal protection in Spain is a regional competency. Fifteen autonomous communities and cities have expressly banned cockfighting in their territories. Only Andalusia and the Canary Islands have incorporated exceptions into their respective laws that allow these fights to continue under certain conditions.

In the Canary Islands, Law 8/1991, of April 30, on the Protection of Animals, generally prohibits using animals in fights and activities involving mistreatment or suffering, but adds an exception: cockfights may be held in those localities where they have traditionally taken place, provided they are conducted in enclosed spaces and entry is prohibited to minors under 16. The law also prevents the construction of new facilities, although it allows replacing an existing one within the same municipality. In practice, the Canary Islands Cockfighting Federation brings together around 40 associations and about 1,500 registered participants, with a season that typically begins in January and lasts until May.

Unlike in Andalusia, in the Canaries the authorized fights are open to federated members of the public. Each fight pits two individuals against each other in a circular ring about three meters in diameter. The encounter is considered over when one of the two refuses to fight or is incapacitated. Victory in many cases results in the death of one of them, although when the loser survives seriously injured, the fight is stopped before the final outcome. The fights have a time limit of 10 minutes, as documented by reporters who witnessed the league matches in Gran Canaria.

In Andalusia, Law 11/2003, of November 24, and a subsequent resolution from December 2004 establish a different framework. Its Article 4 generally prohibits cockfights but exempts fights aimed at breeding selection for the improvement of the breed and its export, carried out in authorized farms and premises with the exclusive attendance of members. These activities are not considered a public spectacle, are closed to the general public, and betting of any kind is expressly prohibited. The fights are organized through the Andalusian Federation of Defenders of the Spanish Fighting Cock, with a special concentration in Cádiz — particularly Jerez and Sanlúcar de Barrameda — and enthusiasts are notified each Friday via WhatsApp groups.

Before each fight, the cocks are subjected to systematic mutilations: their combs, wattles, and earlobes are cut off with scissors, their spurs are sharpened with a file, and in many cases, artificial plastic or metal spurs are added to inflict greater damage. Eduardo Olmedo, Environmental Prosecutor for the Province of Valencia, documented these practices in depth: the mutilations cause severe wounds, intense pain, increased susceptibility to infections, and physiological alterations that can lead to death. These are not neutral contests: they are confrontations that subject each individual to verified suffering before, during, and after each fight.

The magnitude of the problem in figures

Behind each fight lies an industry with its own census, federations, and eligibility for subsidies. According to data from the Breeding Program for the Spanish Fighting Cock Breed, at the end of 2020 there were 56,780 specimens of the Fighting Cock breed registered nationwide: 36,338 males and 20,442 females. 94% of that population — 53,560 animals — is concentrated in Andalusia. Nationally, 1,733 breeders are officially registered in the program, but the social reach of the sector is much larger: the Andalusian Federation of Defenders of the Spanish Fighting Cock has approximately 28,000 members distributed across about 70 clubs.

These numbers are not just an inventory: they are the structure upon which the system rests. The breeding program itself defines cockfights as "functional tests" or "performance checks," and the annual qualification of each animal depends on the results obtained in these fights throughout the season. This means that thousands of fights are held every year in authorized control centers spread across the federated clubs. The suffering is not a side effect: it is the selection mechanism.

What they do before the fight

The suffering does not begin when two cocks face each other in the ring. It begins weeks earlier, in the cockyard itself, with a series of mutilations and interventions that are not performed by veterinarians and which, considered individually, would already constitute animal abuse.

The first is the amputation of the comb, wattles, and earlobes. It is done with scissors, without anesthesia or analgesia, and causes acute, immediate pain as well as stress that can lead to immunosuppression. These structures are not purely aesthetic: they are essential for the animal's thermoregulation. By removing them, the cock loses a fundamental part of its ability to exchange heat with the environment, making it more vulnerable to temperature fluctuations, especially during the intense physical exertion of the fight.

The second is the shaving of the plumage, known in the jargon as "tusado" or "atusado." Depriving the bird of its natural insulation aggravates the thermoregulation problems and exposes the skin to irritating substances — camphor, bleach, alcohol, ammonia, vinegar, or lemon juice, alone or mixed — that are rubbed on the depilated areas to artificially redden the skin and make it visually more striking during the fight. This friction causes dermatitis and erythema.

The third is the manipulation of the spurs. They are filed and sharpened to turn them into more lethal weapons, and in many contexts they are replaced by artificial spurs: in the legal fights in the Canaries, plastic ones are authorized; in the illegal ones in the rest of the country, the most commonly used are metal blades that extend the natural spur's reach from 1.5 cm to 10 cm. Additionally, anti-pecking glasses with a peg that pierces the nasal septum are routinely used, a practice banned by the Standing Committee of the European Convention for the Protection of Animals, and which causes direct injury to the nostrils.

All of this happens before the first blow. And none of these interventions are supervised by a veterinarian: in neither of the two communities with a legal exception is their presence mandatory during the fights or during the prior manipulations.

What happens inside the ring

During the fight, injuries are concentrated on the head. The face appears inflamed, especially around the eyes. The eyeball may be perforated, although swelling makes it difficult to detect immediately. The nostrils become obstructed with blood, compromising breathing. Added to this are lung perforations, fractures in legs and wings, and wounds on the body caused by the spurs, whether natural or artificial.

To maximize the animals' stamina and aggressiveness, it is common to administer drugs: hormones like testosterone, coagulating agents like Vitamin K to reduce bleeding, and stimulants like strychnine, caffeine, or methamphetamine. Antibiotics, Vitamin B12, and dextrose are also documented. The cock that enters the ring is not just an animal selected to fight: it is an animal chemically prepared to endure more and attack with greater intensity.

That the fight stops when one of them "puts its breast on the ground" — as established by Andalusian regulations — does not mean the damage is less. It means the animal has reached the limit of its capacity to respond. The injuries produced during the encounters include hemorrhages, inflammations, infections, mutilations, enucleations, and, in many cases, death.

A missed opportunity in Congress

Law 7/2023 was presented as the most advanced legislation in Spain's history regarding animal protection. But its real scope, concerning the cocks used in fights, is structurally limited for three overlapping reasons.

The first is its scope of application. The law protects companion animals and wild animals in captivity, but expressly excludes production animals. The Spanish Fighting Cock has been included in the Official Catalog of Livestock Breeds of Spain since January 2007, which allows it to be legally placed in that excluded category. The second reason is the reference to public spectacles: the law prohibits using animals in spectacles that cause them suffering, but the authorized fights in the Canaries and Andalusia are excluded from this category and take place in closed, private venues. The third is the exception for "regulated activities": Article 25.m prohibits fights between companion animals but excludes regulated activities from this prohibition, a category into which the authorized fights in both communities fit.

Lawyer Cristina Bécares Mendiola, coordinator of the Animal Law Commission at the Illustrious Bar Association of Terrassa, is blunt in her diagnosis: the Animal Welfare Act, as it stands, does not protect all animals, perpetuating the existing differences between communities on this matter. The result is that these individuals will remain unprotected under state law.

The fact that encapsulates the magnitude of what was lost is the initial draft. The first text of the law included, in its Article 27, the express prohibition of organizing, holding, or publicizing cockfights throughout Spanish territory. That paragraph was removed during the parliamentary process at the suggestion of the Popular Party and VOX. The law that was supposed to close the exception instead became the instrument that ratified it.

A business of blood and black money

The partial legality in Andalusia and the Canary Islands has a direct effect on the rest of Spanish territory: it fuels a clandestine market that security forces describe as expanding. Illegal fights are organized through WhatsApp groups, rarely leave a digital trace, and are held in warehouses, farmhouses, and private venues with controlled access.

In January 2024, the National Police dismantled in Aspe, Alicante, one of the largest clandestine cockfighting rings known in Spain. The operation involved nearly 80 officers. Inside, there were about 200 people and bets reaching 50,000 euros on that single day. Among those attending was a 12-year-old boy who had been hiding 12,000 euros in his underwear. The alleged organizer was arrested and released a few hours later. "It's a relatively recent crime in the Penal Code with very low prison sentences," explains Olmedo.

The situation repeats itself in Andalusia, where illegal fights coexist with authorized ones. In Granada, the National Police dismantled an illegal cockfighting ring in a town near Motril as part of Operation Gallo: 130 people identified — 15 of them minors —, 43 cocks seized, more than 46,000 euros in cash for betting, reports for drug use and carrying bladed weapons. In Seville, the Local Police found 17 fighting cocks abandoned in breathable plastic bags next to the municipal cemetery. Theft of these animals is common in the sector, as a purebred specimen can fetch up to 5,000 euros; to prevent theft, breeders tattoo the individuals under the wings with the breeder's name.

Interventions are not limited to the Levante or the south. In Coristanco, A Coruña, the Civil Guard arrested four people in Operation Lecoq in a shed where they found fighting breed cocks with sharpened spurs wrapped in adhesive tape, all in individual housing due to their induced aggressiveness. All had had their combs and wattles amputated, legs shaved, and body feathers plucked. Inside, they also found a circular canvas ring, a case with blades, artificial spurs, files, syringes, and three hourglasses to time the fights. Galicia, Cantabria, the Basque Country, Asturias, Catalonia, Madrid, Murcia, Valencia, Castile-La Mancha: the Civil Guard and the National Police have dismantled illegal cockfighting rings in more than a dozen autonomous communities in recent years. Illegality knows no regional borders.

Olmedo has been warning of this phenomenon for years in the Valencian Courts and in the courts. His diagnosis leaves no room for ambiguity: "The only solution is to toughen the Penal Code and introduce harsher penalties for this type of animal abuse crime. And, of course, ban fights throughout Spain, because as long as they are legal in Andalusia and the Canary Islands, it's an almost lost battle." The prosecutor adds that even official circulars from the Junta de Andalucía have gone so far as to justify the mutilations as a preventive measure to avoid more serious injuries during fights: a logic that, in his words, constitutes "an outrage and a complete absurdity."

The sector's economy is also sustained by the legal commercialization of the animals. Breeding fighting cocks is permitted throughout Spain, even though their mutilations and the fights themselves are banned outside the two communities with exceptions. This generates a constant flow of individuals bred in the Valencian Community, Murcia, and other regions towards Andalusia, where the legality of the fights gives them an outlet. The line between legal and illegal business is, in practice, nearly invisible.

The future depends on you

The legal and political debate remains deadlocked. The regional regulations of Andalusia and the Canary Islands, drafted over twenty and thirty years ago respectively, remain in force without substantial modification. The state law passed in 2023 did not close the exception. And meanwhile, legal and illegal cockfighting rings continue their activity, police operations follow one another without effective deterrence, and cocks are abandoned in sacks as if they were trash.

The most direct solution involves modifying the Andalusian and Canary Islands regional laws to eliminate the exceptions that allow the fights, and reforming Law 7/2023 so that its prohibition of fights also covers animals classified as production animals. The fact that a cock is legally classified as a farm animal does nothing to change its capacity to feel pain, fear, or stress. That capacity is identical to that of any other sentient being, and should be sufficient on its own to merit legal protection.

You can help make that happen. You can sign and share AnimaNaturalis' campaigns demanding the modification of regional regulations and the definitive closure of legal exceptions. You can contact your regional representative and ask them to take a public stance on this issue. You can report any activity you suspect is linked to the illegal organization of cockfights to SEPRONA. And you can become a member of AnimaNaturalis so that the organization's political and legal capacity for influence does not depend on the will of those who are currently blocking legislative progress.