Animal Rights Activists Aren’t Happy with a Pub Called ‘Ye Olde Fighting Cocks’

Human beings do horrible things to animals. We put dogs in handbags, turn cats into perpetually angry internet memes, and force owls to be in close proximity with drunk people.

While our recent track record with furry things isn't great, at least we can console ourselves with the fact that we're not as bad as we used to be. Henry VIII was a big fan of bear-baiting, and the Victorians thought tigers were perfectly suited to urban living.

Another method of animal torment we've hopefully grown out of is cockfighting, the delightful bloodsport that forces two roosters to attack each other for the entertainment of onlookers. The practise is still carried out in some parts of Southeast Asia but has been banned in the UK since 1895.

So, just a barbaric pastime confined to the history books? Not according to PETA. Last week, the organisation sent an open letter to the owners of the Ye Olde Fighting Cocks pub in St Albans, urging them to distance their establishment from the ancient sport.

According to PETA's letter, the pub's current name "calls to mind the violence and gore of cockfighting" and should it be changed to "Ye Olde Clever Cocks" to "encourage people to rethink the way that we treat chickens and grant these birds the respect and kindness that they deserve."

The letter went on to include a suggested logo for the pub (two bespectacled chickens because they're "clever cocks," geddit?) and offered to supply "enough Fry's Meat Free Chicken Style Strips to serve a full pub crowd" at a renaming party.

Ye Olde Fighting Cocks landlord, Christo Tofalli didn't know quite what to make of the letter.

"We were surprised. We're used to hearing about PETA doing work around the world bringing corporations to their knees, not little one-man-band businesses," he says.

Listed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the UK's oldest pub, the Fighting Cocks dates back to the eighth century and was said to have housed Oliver Cromwell for a night during the Civil War.

News of PETA's suggested name change prompted many to take to social media to defend heritage over hippies, with one St Albans local writing on the pub's Facebook page: "This pub has so much history. I remember walking round at Albans as a child and going here and our teachers telling us all about it."

"There are a few people that are angry but I would say 90 percent of the messages we've had—and we've had hundreds from around the world—basically say, Leave the history alone," says Tofalli. "St Albans is in uproar; luckily the people have also got a fantastic sense of humour. I reckon we could practically write a book with chicken jokes and new pub names."

Endless fun can be had from laughing at animal rights activists (and cock jokes) but PETA insists there is a serious message behind the stunt.

"Most of the negative comments seemed to come from those who had not read our letter and a false assumption that we were suggesting that the pub is supporting or promoting cockfighting with its name," explains PETA Special Projects Manager, Dawn Carr. "We've found that once people get to know about what fascinating, clever, and gentle animals chicken are, they are less likely to feel comfortable about eating them."

While there's no doubt our treatment of livestock needs to change, it is unclear why PETA chose a small town pub as a means of achieving this. Tofalli believes the Fighting Cocks' unusual name helps people to better understand the cruel history of cockfighting.

"We're actually celebrating the fact that chicken fighting finished over 150 years ago," explains Tofalli. "We get a lot of people coming in asking about the history of the pub and significance of the name, and not one of them says, I wish you could bring cockfighting back."

With increasing numbers of traditional British pubs being lost to city regeneration and tricky licensing agreements, perhaps PETA should have left these particular cocks alone.

"PETA can sell their substitute chicken and see how it goes but I'm not going to do that," says Tofalli. "You don't buy the oldest pub in the country and turn it into a bistro."

While it may not be on par with forcing animals to fight to the death, turning an historic boozer into a falafel-salad-serving gastropub is pretty cruel. We should be grateful that neither seems to be happening.