As Michael Vick has taught us, those who are involved in deadly combat between mother nature's creatures are in violation of the law. In China, though, it's not dogfighting that has recently drawn the ire of the authorities -- it's cricket fighting.

Shanghai police busted a professional cricket-fighting ring in a raid, and in the process, caught a man named Lin, known to be a master of the art of "cricket teasing," a process which agitates the insects and primes them to brawl.

One of the officers who led the raid said, "If Lin teased a cricket he could make it angry enough to beat even a stronger opponent. Lin was Shanghai's number one cricket teaser."

The blood sport is actually over 1,000 years old, and is popular in Shanghai's financial district among gamblers. The matches take place after cricket handlers poke the crickets with sticks until they are feisty and mean -- and then put them together in a box to fight until the death. Prize crickets are cared for diligently and given special foods.

In other words, these battle-hardened bugs would grind a top hat-wearing dandy like Jiminy to a pulp.