Doping in pidgeon-racing and male cricket-fighting

[arcus]

Accusations of fowl play as pigeon fanciers are said to have doped their birds with COCAINE before races.......
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3907516/Accusations-fowl-play-pigeon-fanciers-said-doped-birds-COCAINE-races.html#ixzz4PAV2PJmS

In this BBC radio documentary, they talk about the Chinese pastimes of male cricket fighting, and how the insects have to be quarantined before bouts to stop owners doping them with steroids to increase their competitiveness.... .
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b080t7df

If even insect- and avian-based sports are contaminated, there is no hope

 

[Robert5091]

:surprised: Have we hit rock bottom yet? I think not ... :sad:

 

[RedheadDane]

Wait... what? How do you dope a cricket?
How do you train a cricket to fight? Simply because they're so territorial that they'll fight if they see another male nearby?

:Question:

 

[arcus]

Re:

Wait... what? How do you dope a cricket?
How do you train a cricket to fight? Simply because they're so territorial that they'll fight if they see another male nearby?

:Question:

Apparently they are indeed very territorial and naturally fight other males. When they fight, one establishes dominance and the other concedes. They don't even harm one another apparently. They steroids increase their aggressive behavior, it seems........

The point of the OP was to to make the point that if doping exists in those pastimes/sports, how can sports like tennis, soccer, basketball try to convince their fans that they are really clean. No way they are.

 

[RedheadDane]

To be honest, I think there's probably doping in Competitive Poetry Writing. Thing is; if it's possible to cheat there will always be someone cheating.
However, to me a sport - or any sort of competitive thing - being clean doesn't necessarily mean no doping, whatsoever but simply that its governing body is willing to take actions by testing, issuing sanctions towards people being caught, and - perhaps most importantly - accept that "Yeah, there are people in this sport who cheat." Which, of course, seems to be exactly where those sports you just mentioned fails, on the other hand, from the OP it looks like something is actually being done about the doped crickets.

And I'm still imagining a bunch of cricket owners feeding the crickets steroids with little pipettes...