Cockfighting - over 60 birds seized
Socorro, TX (US)Incident Date: Friday, Apr 17, 2009
County: El Paso
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged:
» Efren Arzate
» Manuel Ronquillo
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
More than 60 roosters were seized and two men were arrested Friday night in a cockfighting case, police said.
Officers found nine wounded and 12 dead roosters at a house in the 150 block of Azarte Road. Forty-seven unhurt birds also were on the property.
Several people fled when police arrived. Police also impounded 35 vehicles and seized cash and razor blades.
Efren Arzate, 42, and Manuel Ronquillo, 49, were arrested at the house and charged with cruelty to animals.
Case UpdatesCockfighting is illegal in all 50 states, but the bloody, centuries-old tradition of rooster maiming rooster lives on.
Recent raids in the El Paso and southeast New Mexico areas prove that men are willing to risk their liberty to force birds into combat.
Early this month, investigators in Doña Ana County, N.M., raided seven properties, seized more than 500 birds and arrested four people suspected of being part of cockfighting enterprises.
Socorro police shut down another well-organized cockfighting event nine days ago at a house in the 150 block of Azarte Road. A tip led police to the house, where they found 68 roosters, 21 of them dead or maimed. Officers arrested two men and impounded 35 vehicles of gamblers who fled, Socorro Police Capt. Jaime Avalos said.
Efren Arzate, 42, who lives at the Socorro house where the raid occurred, was one of the two men arrested. The other was Manuel Ronquillo, 49. Both were charged with cruelty to animals, a felony punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
In an interview at his home last week, Arzate said people of all ages were watching the cockfights until police arrived. He said many people in New Mexico and Texas attended cockfights while growing up, and he considered them a part of life in this region.
"It's not really for the gambling. It's for the tradition," Arzate said. "That's why they raise the chickens. A lot of people have been doing it for generations."
In an affidavit, police said they heard music and loud noises coming from the back Arzate's house the night of April 17. As officers approached, Arzate, Ronquillo and at least 50 other people ran away.
Police entered an oval pit enclosed with a white wall and found two brown and black roosters with needle-sharp gaffs tied to their spurs. The birds were flapping around in separate cages, Avalos said.
Four bloody roosters lay dead on the ground. One mutilated bird, he said, was found dead in a trash can, next to beer bottles, paper plates and food scraps. About $750, most of it in $100 bills, was scattered on the ground.
Avalos said Arzate and Ronquillo returned to the house soon after they fled. In an affidavit, police said Arzate told them he was a "fighting rooster." Officers noticed small blood splatters on the front of his shirt.
Ronquillo had blood on his shoes, jacket, shirt and hands, police said. He told police a friend invited him to the house, and he was there to have a good time.
Avalos said the outlawing of cockfighting in New Mexico may be pushing some of its enthusiasts across the state line to the El Paso area, where they will not be charged if caught. It is a felony to hold a cockfight, but spectators are not charged in Texas, he said.
Conversely, New Mexico penalizes spectators at cockfights with a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine.
New Mexico kept cockfighting legal longer than all states except one. It did not outlaw the matches, which some call blood sport, until June 2007. Supporters of cockfighting insisted that New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed the cockfighting ban only because he was running for president.
In August 2008, Louisiana became the 50th state to outlaw cockfighting.
Arzate said he used to raise up to 200 roosters each year, some from a bloodline he'd had since he was 15 years old. The fighting birds, he said, used to be valuable.
But since the cockfighting ban in New Mexico, the roosters are not worth much anymore and their feed is expensive, he said. Given these circumstances, he said, he was glad he did not have to worry about his birds anymore.
Asked whether he knew cockfighting was illegal, he said, "Yeah, it's illegal. ... It didn't used to be such a big deal, but it's a big deal now. It's almost like a homicide, I guess."
Arzate said he did not consider cockfighting cruelty to animals, but he put dogfighting in that category.
Cockfighting pits two roosters against each other in a ring or enclosure. The roosters often are severely injured or killed in the fights. Entertainment for spectators and gambling are the main purposes of cockfighting matches.
Fights can last from several minutes to half an hour, said John Goodwin, who specializes in the study of animal fighting for the Humane Society of the United States.
"This is a heinously cruel activity where animals suffer for no sociable redeemable purpose whatsoever," he said.
Goodwin said cockfighting matches are staged from California to Connecticut.
"The ethnic disposition of cockfighters, really, varies from region to region. For example, I've gone on a raid in Tennessee where 143 were arrested and all were of white European descent. And then I've gone on a cockfighting raid in New Mexico where everybody arrested was of Mexican descent," he said.
Cockfighting, he said, originated in Asia, where different types of birds were bred to have "artificial levels of aggression."
In their natural habitat, birds will fight over food, territory or mates. Those fights rarely result in serious injuries. But in cockfights, Goodwin said, roosters are often given steroids or drugs to make them more aggressive. | Source: El Paso Times - April 25, 2009
Update posted on Apr 27, 2009 - 1:17AM |
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