Lake County, federal and state police hauled away dozens of chickens in paper bags from a home in Calumet Township on Jan 5 following tips that the homeowner was raising the fowl for fighting.
Investigators and volunteers said they discovered more than 100 chickens held in grim conditions in individual outdoor cages behind the home at 5505 W. 45th Ave., near the Griffith border.
An informant told investigators the homeowner, Randall Todd Martin, had held cockfights on the two-acre property and at other locations, Lake County Detective Michelle Weaver said.
After executing a search warrant of the home, investigators said they discovered stylized knives that are attached to the birds' legs during fighting, as well as cockfighting DVDs and magazines and a colorful cap embroidered with chickens and the phrase, "Cock Fight."
"It's an inexpensive way of getting a violent thrill," said Scott Wilson, a program coordinator with the Humane Society of United States. "They see two animals fight to the death. And there is gambling, which is a thrill."
Wilson said cockfighting has become an increasing problem in recent years. Compared with other operations in Iowa and Nebraska, Wilson said Friday's bust was "pretty-good sized," considering it was in an urban setting.
Also in the home were seven rifles and shotguns, including two loaded weapons that were lying near a pair of high-powered binoculars near to the home's back door, which faces the chicken coops, police said.
Investigators said they also discovered nearly a dozen dead animals in Martin's freezer, including a great horned owl, an animal known to feed on medium-sized birds such as chickens.
"This will be his federal offense," said Terri Arlandson, a conservation officer with the Indiana DNR, holding up the owl carcass. "This owl is a federally protected species. You can't even posses one."
As of Friday afternoon, authorities said they still were searching for Martin to question him. His wife, Elizabeth, had been detained for questioning, Weaver said.
Investigators seized 70 of the estimated 112 chickens held in cages on the property. Police only confiscated chickens that had been surgically altered for cockfighting.
Typically, the breeders will use razors to slice off the chicken's comb and wattle, which can bleed during fights, and they trim the animal's natural leg spurs to make way for the metal leg knives used during matches.
Lake County police said they had been planning for the raid since receiving a tip several months ago. Weaver encouraged anyone in the public who knows of other cockfighting operations to contact her at (219) 755-3355. Case UpdatesRandall Todd Martin faces nine years in prison if he's convicted of staging and promoting cockfighting at his Calumet Township home.
Prosecutors on Thursday filed the charges against Martin, 45.
After watching Martin's home at 5505 W. 45th Ave. for months -- including taking aerial photographs of the 2-acre property -- Lake County police raided the place Jan. 5.
They confiscated more than 70 chickens, videotapes, bird supplements and specialized blades placed on birds' legs during fights, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Officers also took diaries belonging to Martin's wife, who made at least 50 entries about chickens, the report states.
"Nick/Todd getting birds ready in basement for derby," one entry said, according to the probable cause affidavit.
One of the videotapes was of Martin and a man identified as "Nick" fighting two birds in the Martin living room, the report states.
After rounding up all the chickens, officers had them inspected by a veterinarian, who said seven of the birds had injuries consistent with use in cockfighting, including feet lacerations, head and face punctures, neck punctures and other body lacerations and abrasions, the report states.
The veterinarian described the wounds as no older than 10 days and inflicted by other chickens, the report states.
A confidential informant told officers about going to cockfighting derbies on Martin's property. That's what led to the surveillance and subsequent raid, the report states. | Source: NWI Times - April 6, 2007
Update posted on Apr 6, 2007 - 7:01AM |
Lake County officials have kept the birds' location a secret. A champion fighting bird can be worth hundreds of dollars, and is far more valuable as breeding stock.
The birds -- some 77 Asian fighting cocks and hens -- have been at an undisclosed location while Lake County Sheriff's Department detectives close out their investigation of an alleged cockfighting farm in Calumet Township that was raided two weeks ago.
The future for the hyper-aggressive birds, say their farmer caretakers and county officials, is not bright. The birds' owner, Randall T. Martin, could face criminal charges for possession of metal cock spurs, cockfighting magazines and a dead, federally-protected Great Horned Owl in his house in the 5500 block of West 45th Avenue.
Martin's attorney, Arlington Foley, declined comment.
The charges likely mean the birds won't be going back to Martin, or to their lives as poultry pugilists, and several thousand years of breeding as fighters means they won't be able to be reintroduced into barnyard society.
The brightly plumed birds have to be kept individually in cages rather than in normal chicken coops because the birds will attack each other and fight to the death if allowed to mingle.
"They're too feisty to mix with other chickens," said the farm's owner, who asked not to be named. "I don't even know if anyone would want to eat them, they'd be so tough. You could probably get some soup chickens out of them."
Their stock even as chicken soup may be falling, said Suzanne Crider, director of the Starke County Humane Society, which sheltered more than 60 birds this spring after sheriff's police busted an in-progress cockfight in rural Grovertown.
The Starke County birds tested positive for steroids and other drugs commonly used to boost the size and aggressiveness of gamecocks, Crider said. More than 50 people -- from as far away as Colorado and Mexico -- were arrested on charges related to the illegal fight, and the forfeited birds were destroyed and cremated within days, Crider said.
Authorities were concerned about the threat of avian flu because some of the birds had been smuggled in from Mexico, and U.S. Humane Society officials told Crider destroying the birds was the humane thing to do.
"They were all muscle and pumped up on steroids. They weren't exactly anything I would want to eat," Crider said. "If you put them up for adoption, you couldn't have them near any other chickens. The only people that would want them are the same sort of people you took them from on the first place."
More than 180 chickens, all of them fighting breeds, were in cages in Martin's partially flooded back yard. Those taken by police showed signs they had been prepped for fighting by having their fleshy combs and wattles cut off, and their beaks had been filed down and sharpened.
Animal-cruelty groups reported only two other cockfighting arrests in the state in recent years. Most busts take place in rural areas where authorities won't notice large numbers of birds or the relative hubbub of fight nights, said Scott Wilson, mid-states director for the Humane Society.
Cockfighting, which is illegal in all states save Louisiana and New Mexico, has increased in popularity now that the Internet allows gamefighting enthusiasts across the country to arrange clandestine fights, Wilson said.
The Humane Society is backing federal legislation that would make it a federal felony to transport fighting birds across state lines, Wilson said.
"The people involved in cockfighting are into a host of other illegal things," said Wilson, who notes that many people arrested at cockfights will have pending warrants for other crimes.
That's why Lake County officials have kept the birds' location a secret. A champion fighting bird can be worth hundreds of dollars, and is far more valuable as breeding stock.
"We don't need anybody to know where they are," the farmer said Wednesday. "They're beautiful birds, and it's a shame this happened." | Source: Post-Tribune - Jan 18, 2007
Update posted on Jan 18, 2007 - 11:51AM |
Randall Todd Martin denies he was illegally raising chickens in his backyard for cockfighting.
"We deny any wrong-doing," Martin's attorney, Arlington Foley, said Monday. "We will be defending this in accordance with the theory that he has doing nothing wrong."
Martin has not yet been charged with a crime.
Lake County police seized more than 70 chickens Friday from outdoor cages in Martin's Calumet Township backyard, saying the birds had been surgically altered for fighting.
Cockfighting breeders often use razors to remove the loose-hanging flesh from their chickens' heads, because the skin bleeds too easily during fights.
Lake County officials said the search warrant and subsequent seizure of the birds was based on tips from an informant.
Authorities also confiscated specialized blades placed on the birds' legs during the fights, as well as several dead animals from a freezer, including a federally protected owl.
State law makes it a Class D felony to stage an animal fight, use an animal in a fight, or harbor animals with scars or injuries consistent with illegal fighting.
Lake County Detective Michelle Weaver said officials will present the information to prosecutors after the county hires a veterinarian to inspect the birds' scars for evidence.
"They're just waiting for that one piece of information and then they'll be filing charges with the prosecutor's office," Weaver said. | Source: NWI Times - Jan 9, 2007
Update posted on Jan 11, 2007 - 12:23AM |
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