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Cricket men one jump ahead of Law

The Young Reporter (1979, December 15), 12(05), pp. 1.
Permanent URL - https://sys01.lib.hkbu.edu.hk/bujspa/purl.php?&did=bujspa0013109

A NUMBER of cricket breeders are breaking the law prohibiting cricket-fighting.

But it is always hard for the authorities to act, let alone gain a conviction.

There are five cricket fraternities in Hongkong. Their membership totals over 1,000.

A Police spokesman said these associations are legal because their declared aim was in cultivating members’ interest in cricket-breeding.

“However, if we have evidence of cricket-fighting we would certainly take action, ” he said.

So far the police have not been called to investigate this ‘trivial’ thing, he added.

The Chief Inspector of the RSPCA Mr Allan Tong said that it is unlawful to cause unnecessary suffering to crickets.

“We are against any form of creature fighting for sport because this is barbarous,” he said.

Mr Johnny So, a member of Kowloon Yik Yau Cricket Fraternity told TYR that cricket-fighting matches are held from April to August inside the association premises.

^Although the police have arrested and prosecuted our members several times in the past, they had not won a conviction. Our case is that the cricket is an insect with neither blood nor flesh,” he said. “And we do not gamble on cricket-fighting.”

A cricket-fighting expert of more than 30 years, said that crickets are fond of fighting by nature.

“They like fighting just as horses like to run,” he said, “They fight one another whenever and wherever they meet.

“If cricket-fighting is objectionable, wonder why the Government does not take action against fishing,” he added.

Mr Tong of the RSPCA said that their inspectors have investigated seven times this year.

“Most of our visits proved futile because the evidence is swiftly cleared away as we approach,” Mr Tong said.

On the few occasions cricket men had been prosecuted, it was for gambling, and not for cruelty to the crickets, the RSPCA said.

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