Cockfighting - over 50 birds seized
Perris, CA (US)Incident Date: Friday, Jun 19, 2009
County: Riverside
Disposition: Alleged
Abuser names unreleased
Deputies served a search warrant looking for a chop-shop in the rural outskirts of Perris, but instead they found more than 50 roosters kept for fighting, according to an Animal Services spokesman.
The Friday night raid occurred in the 24600 block of Theda Street, west of Perris and just north of state Route 74. The man deputies were looking for was not home.
In addition to the roosters, deputies found a box of cockfighting gaffs - - curved metal blades that human handlers lash to roosters' legs for combat -- as well as a jar of gel used for dressing wounded birds, according to Animal Services spokesman John Welsh.
A total of 57 cockfighting birds were "humanely euthanized'' by Animal Services, Welsh said. Ten of the dead birds will be tested at a state lab for West Nile virus, Newcastle Disease and other illnesses.
Cockfighting and owning cockfighting gaffs are against the law, Welsh said.
"Cockfighting, although illegal, remains an issue we continue to fight in Riverside County,'' Cynthia Lee, an Animal Services sergeant, said in a prepared statement.
Animal Services employees did not take pleasure in euthanizing the cockfighting birds, but the birds faced a "much more barbaric future'' had they not been put to death, Lee said. References« CA State Animal Cruelty Map
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