America’s Rooster Men THE VANISHING BREED 2

By Manny Pinol

In 2009, I and my brother Patricio, a retired police colonel, drove all the way from the plains of Salinas in California to Salem, Oregon to visit a relative married to an American.

Along the way, Pat, a gamefowl breeder like me, asked whether there were game chicken breeders in the area whose farm we could visit.

A friend based in San Diego, Cris Milana, said that a gamefowl breeder named Jim Clem was breeding good Roundheads and Blacks in the city of Klamath Falls, just across the boundary from California.

When I got hold of Jim through my mobile phone and told him of our plan to drop by his farm, his immediate response was: “Please don’t come. You will get me into deeper trouble with the police.”

I would learn later that Jim had just been arrested and charged with felony for participating in an illegal cockfight somewhere in Oregon and that he was just out on bail.

We did not meet Jim but that call started a friendship I had with him which was strengthened later on when I met him in Las Vegas, along with his son, Jimmy, to watch Manny Pacquiao’s fight against Oscar dela Hoya.

It was in Las Vegas when Jim asked me whether he could send his gamefowl breeding materials to the Philippines where I would continue to breed them.

“I’ve had these chickens since I was a young boy but I have to let go of them or else I will get into deep trouble,” he told me.

So, I arranged for the shipment of his Black Japs to the Philippines and bred them in my farm in Barangay Paco, Kidapawan City.

In January 2011, I fielded Jim Clem’s Black Japs in the 8-cock World Slasher Cup held twice a year in the Araneta Coliseum and we scored 7 wins against 1 loss to come runner-up to the champion who won 8 straight.

Jim had visited the Philippines twice to witness his roosters fight and take pride in their victories but back home in Klamath Falls, he does not breed fighting roosters anymore.

There are still a few Black Jap hens running around his 8-acre farm in the outskirts of the city and a few roosters in the tie cord in the range but their purpose is mainly to quench Jim Clem’s longing for his beloved feathered warriors.

Today, Jim, his wife Terri and son Jimmy are deeply involved in the raising of Anglo Nubian dairy goats and have just received their permit to operate a Triple A Dairy facility.

Starting with only 30 heads of does and selected bucks out of the Six M Galaxy line of the Anglo Nubians, Jim hopes to reach a 300-doe level by 2014.

I was in Jim’s farm a few days ago and saw for myself that while he looks at his dairy goats as a source of income for his family, the Black hens running around and the few roosters which are ranged in the back of his modest home serve as the source of joy.

Jim still talks about the days when he and his friends were free to enjoy the excitement of raising roosters and fighting them but he knows that those days are gone.

(This article and the many others I will write about American gamefowl breeders are excerpts of longer and more detailed stories on the lives of this vanishing breed of farmers in America and will be included in a book I am writing titled “The Vanishing Breed.”)

Photo captions: First photo shows Jim Clem holding a Black Jap stag in his farm in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Second photo shows a Jim Clem Anglo Nubian doe with two kids; 3rd photo shows Jim Clem with his new milk tanks; 4th photo shows healthy goats in Jim Clem’s farm.