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[Bizarre] Fighting Rooster - Backyard Taxidermy in Portugal

Bizarre post! Okay this is just plain strange. I don't think I have ever seen a rooster like this in all my life. I am sure they exist in some back alley illegal fighting cock pit with lots of lingering hazy smoke and rough looking people, but to see one stuffed like this! Some guy must of liked his chicken a lot to have it stuffed and preserved forever.

This picture was taken in Fatima, Portugal. We were visiting some sites in the area and our bus parked behind this families home off the way. They had a lot of dirty chickens running around scratching at the dirt and this little back yard room with all these dead animals. Right in the front this rooster was hanging from a string. It seemed really bad, like dead something. A few friends walked in, but I only went half and started snapping picture. There were some stuffed cats, snakes, and a strange cat like animal I don't even know how to describe (you can kinda see it in the background). Look at those claws on that rooster! I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to piss off this chicken.

I couldn't find any information about cockfighting in Portugal, but I do recall hearing that it happens regularly as a sport in those countries. Everywhere in Portugal you go, there are little "roosters" on all sorts of trinkets they sell to tourists. The "rooster" has become a recognized symbol of Portugal. In Portuguese, a rooster is known as "Có có ró có" or "o galo de Barcelos".

Why is it such a symbol? The legend goes something like this:

"The legend of the Barcelos cockerel goes back to the 13th Century. The legend says that a rich man made a big party. When the party was over, the rich man noticed that his sterling cutlery was stolen by a guest. He accused a pilgrim and let him go to court. After appealing to Our Lady and Saint James the Great he protested his innocence, but the judge didn't believe him. The judge was about to eat a roasted cock and the pilgrim said: If I am innocent, this cock will crow three times. When the pilgrim was about to be hanged, the cock got up from the plate and crowed three times. The judge released the pilgrim. The story ends a few years later when the pilgrim returned and made a statue over the event. Since then, brightly painted ceramic cockerels are sold throughout Portugal as symbols of good luck." Source: Wikipedia

I heard this same story in Portugal but it had more details. Like for example the pilgram went to the rich man's party to see his lover, a beautiful girl that was to be wed to the rich man. The man, was also with his father at the time he went to the party.