Cockfighting - over a dozen birds seized
Rio Linda, CA (US)Incident Date: Sunday, Nov 11, 2007
County: Sacramento
Disposition: Alleged
Abuser names unreleased
Ten to 15 people were detained and more than a dozen birds were seized Sunday as Sacramento County sheriff's deputies swooped down on a suspected cockfighting ring in Rio Linda, authorities said.
Deputies arrived on the 6700 block of 24th Street off Elkhorn Blvd. in Rio Linda just after 1 p.m. Sunday just before the suspected event was to begin, Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran said.
Investigators held nearly a dozen people for questioning and seized 12 roosters, a hen and four chickens, which were turned over to Sacramento County Animal Control officials.
Authorities also confiscated an assortment of razors and other cockfighting implements, Curran said.
Neighbors say they'd called deputies before for fighting and rowdy behavior and that they'd suspected illegal cockfighting was going on. Next door neighbor Ron Poling says he was tired of the late night activity, adding, "Guys coming and going and just noisy cars and everything. Yelling and screaming at night and whatever ... there was two fights I called the police on."
Monica Fabila says her family was not holding a cockfight, but simply getting rid of the birds that had been annoying neighbors. "It was our family members who were here and were selling the birds. And we were told to eliminate all the birds that we had. That's what we were doing," she said.
She said sheriff's deputies had warned the family before that it looked like they were using the roosters for cockfighting. She says she does not know where the confiscated razors and cockfighting implements came from, but that they did not belong to her family. Her fiance and another man were cited for animal cruelty and released. References« CA State Animal Cruelty Map
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